Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Hadi Salehi ¹
• Neda Kardooni ²

¹ Assistant Professor of Public Law at Shiraz University

² PhD in International law, Visiting Researcher at Queens University, Canada

Abstract

The role and relationship of corporate social responsibility (CSR) within the legal system have always been a subject of debate. The question of whether CSR is a voluntary or mandatory mechanism is increasingly being questioned today, given the developments in some national and international systems such as the European Union. This article, using legal theory on ethics, highlights the link between legal and ethical responsibilities and outlines a two-way interaction between the economic goals of companies and corporate social responsibilities to show that corporate social responsibility commitments are closely linked to the legal obligations of businesses. Since these commitments are also related to corporate accountability, this paper, focusing on the concept of stakeholders in ethical and legal approaches, shows that a large part of the scope of corporate social responsibility commitments is mandatory, not voluntary. However, this obligation may not arise from a law in the narrow sense and state-centered.

Keywords

• Corporate law
• economics
• ethical principles
• policy making
• stakeholders