Political and Legal Aspect of Corporate Social Responsibility

Legal Aspects

Corporate social responsibility is linked with several areas of laws, which include labor,

environmental, tort, corporate governance, law governance, as well as criminal laws. These legal

areas tend to minimize the consequences that the world faces due to the corresponding

challenges, thereby strengthening the outcomes of corporate social responsibility. Researchers

have established that legal norms of a company and the international and national legislations

mandate companies to adhere to the laws related to human rights violation (Lambooy, 2014). As

a result, not only these companies can avoid such instances, but these laws can also help them in

achieving such CSR outcomes through effective implementation of the legal norms. These legal

norms also facilitate non-legal values and approach of a company to CSR, i.e. allowing more

transparency regarding the matter of environmental protection and human rights.

A prominent example of legal aspect of CSR is the OECD Guidelines for Multinational

Enterprises Regime. These guidelines allow stakeholders to disclose any social or environmental

issues associated with economic activities of organization, which leads to the resolution of such

problems. The most important benefit of such laws is that they promote self-regulatory practices

in companies, thereby urging them to ensure compliance with the statutory framework

(Buhmann, 2006).

Equal level of both male and female for management

Legal Aspects of CSR also cover gender equality and equal representation of male and females

in management regime. Hence, while it is the social responsibility of the organizations to fight

against gender discrimination by allowing equal opportunities for both genders. For instance, on
national level, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits gender-based bias in organizations.

Similarly, on international level, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ensures

protection of gender rights and equality among men and women of international level. In both

cases, the legal and statutory framework mandates the organizations to adhere to the legal norm,

which in turn enables them to achieve the expected CSR outcomes or objectives.

Political Aspects

Political corporate social responsibility outlines how CSR activities are effected by politics. The

most important political impact can be understood in terms of illegal activities and corporate

corruption that produces a gap between the political aims of the organization and its social or

environment impact (Frynas & Stephens, 2015). Another important concept of politics and its

relationship with CSR has been outlined by Favotto & Kollman (2021), who assert that

corporations tend to incorporate their CSR goals in to their lobbying activities to enhance its

reputation and social legitimacy. Not only this practice of CSR lobbying allows them to address

different issues of social accountability, human rights violation, and transparency, it also enables

them to communicate the role and significance of governmental regulations in eliminating social,

legal, and ethical issues.

References

Buhmann, K. (2006). Corporate social responsibility: what role for law? Some aspects of law

and CSR. Corporate Governance: The international journal of business in society.

Favotto, A., & Kollman, K. (2021). Mixing business with politics: Does corporate social

responsibility end where lobbying transparency begins?. Regulation & Governance, 15(2), 262-

279.
Frynas, J. G., & Stephens, S. (2015). Political corporate social responsibility: Reviewing theories

and setting new agendas. International Journal of Management Reviews, 17(4), 483-509.

Lambooy, T. (2014). Legal aspects of corporate social responsibility. Utrecht J. Int'l & Eur.

L., 30, 1.