The Significance of Moving Beyond Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
du Plessis, J.J., Varottil, U. and Veldman, J. (2018) 'The Significance of Moving Beyond Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)', in du Plessis, J.J., Varottil, U. and Veldman, J. (eds.) Globalisation of Corporate Social Responsibility and its Impact on Corporate Governance. Cham: Springer
21 Pages Posted: 23 Mar 2018 Last revised: 25 Aug 2018
Date Written: March 19, 2018
Abstract
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been widely studied for a long time by, for example, management studies and political sciences (Carroll et al. 2012; Scherer and Palazzo 2011), but has for a long time only played a minor role in law and legal scholarship. One of the main reasons for this was that CSR was traditionally considered to be ‘above and beyond’ what companies are required to do by law. Characterised by a soft law approach voluntary CSR standards were typically developed by corporations, by NGOs and by international organisations. However, recurrent reports about human rights violations in global supply chains and the actions of companies in the wake of the global financial and economic crisis have questioned the soft law approach to CSR and has put a ‘hard law’ law approach on the agenda.
This book addresses the increasing overlap between CSR and law with a particular focus on company law and corporate governance. What is the impact of CSR on company law and corporate governance and, vice versa. How do these systems impact on CSR? Do they enable, require or prevent the socially responsible conduct of companies, for example, through corporate theory, directors’ duties or disclosure laws? What is the role of financial actors in the promotion of the interests and goals covered by CSR approaches?
In this first Part of the book, we provide summaries and basic overviews of all the chapters, organized in three sections. The first section looks at the conceptual frameworks with regard to CSR and stakeholders, the second section looks at the relation of these conceptual frameworks to board structure and accountability, while the last section takes a look at the evidence and experience that surrounds the legislation and implementation of these models.
Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, Corporate Governance, Corporate Law
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