Dans un contexte de globalisation de l'économie, de nouveaux procédés d'autorégulation ont suscité l'intérêt des acteurs privés. Initiées par les entreprises transnationales, ces régulations volontaires visent notamment à encadrer les relations de travail et à offrir une protection des droits sociaux fondamentaux aux travailleurs des filiales. Parmi ces initiatives, l'une a émergé à la fin des années 1980 : l'accord d'entreprise transnational. Ainsi, la protection des droits sociaux fondamentaux ne relève plus uniquement de la responsabilité des États mais se révèle davantage comme appartenant à la « responsabilité sociale » des entreprises via la négociation transnationale d'entreprise. L'absence de toute règle spécifique relative à une telle négociation laisse cependant en suspens certains problèmes juridiques. Répondre à ces incertitudes juridiques nécessite de clarifier des concepts et de mesurer l'effectivité des accords dans la concrétisation des droits sociaux fondamentaux. / In a context of economic globalization, new self-regulation processes have attracted the interest of private actors. lnitiated by transnational companies, these voluntary regulations aim in particular to regulate labour relations and to provide protection of fundamental social rights for workers within subsidiaries. Among these initiatives, one emerged in the late 1980s : the transnational company agreement. Thus, the protection of fundamental social rights is no longer the exclusive concern of States (responsibility), but appears more as belonging to the "social responsibility" of companies via the transnational company bargaining. However, the lack of any specific rules regarding such negotiations leaves some legal problems open. The legal uncertainties related to the transnational company agreements require the clarification of legal concepts and the assessment of the effectiveness of the agreements in the realization of fundamental social rights within transnational companies.

It is now common for managers, strategists, planners and citizens at municipality level to use sustainable development indicators (SDI) to help them work towards sustainable development. SDI constitute an information system for monitoring, reporting and decision-making which in theory should help us decide how to intervene in natural, economic, social and political systems for a better, more sustainable future. But not all indicator systems are created equal. Some are better tools than others when it comes to helping cities and municipalities in their work, and thousands of municipalities use SDI worldwide. How then should we assess the effectiveness of existing indicators for municipalities? To answer this question I develop an approach for assessing the edesign, creation and communication of existing, in-use SDI, and then apply it in a case study in Falun Municipality in Dalarna County, Sweden. The approach assesses five aspects of SDI: ‘Vision’, ‘Framework’, ‘Indicator Selection’, ‘Stakeholder Participation’ and ‘Communication’. The findings in Falun suggest that SDI have been essential to the implementation of sustainable development in policy and action in general municipal operations, but the municipality has not moved beyond a ‘conventional’ sustainable development vision and monitoring strategy. The benefits and constraints of the current indicator system are then discussed using the above approach, and the thesis finishes by offering suggestions for the municipality going forward. I also point to the need to develop a standardised assessment method for thousands of municipalities using indicator systems used today, to help in ongoing review and improvement of SDI in practice.