Corporate Social Responsibility and its Impacts on Corporate Governance.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has for long time only played a minor role in law. One of the main reasons for this was that CSR was traditionally considered to be purely voluntary and to be ‘above and beyond’ what companies are required to do by law. It was therefore characterised by a soft law approach.
However, recurrent reports about human rights violations in global supply chains and the actions of companies in the in the wake of the global financial and economic crisis have questioned the soft law approach to CSR. There is a growing realisation that law has got a role to play to ensure CSR is taken seriously. This is reflected by recent legislative approaches. The growing trend to regulating CSR issues by law has been recognised in the definitions of CSR which are now more open and also leave room to include binding regulation. For example, in its 2011 Communication on CSR, the European Union abandoned its longstanding definition of CSR as being voluntary and instead referred to CSR as ‘the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society’.
This forum addresses the increasing overlap between CSR and law with a particular focus on company law and corporate governance including the following topics:
- What is the impact of CSR on company law and corporate governance?
- How do these system 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 shareholders in the promotion of CSR?
- What are the opportunities and what are the limits of hard law in this regard?
- What is the international perspective on this as CSR?
Event Details
DATE
14-15 December, 2016
LOCATION
Room 601, Level 6, Mingde Law School Building,
Renmin University of China
59 Zhongguancun Ave,
Haidian District, Beijing 100872
China
TIME
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
REGISTRATION AND PROGRAM
Program Day 1
Program Day 2
Registration