Corporate social responsibility: legal regulation of information disclosure in the european union

Corporate Social Responsibility: Legal Regulation of Information Disclosure in the European Union This master thesis reveals the issue of Legal Regulation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Information Disclosure in the European Union. The relevance of the topic is determined by Directive 2014/95/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (Directive 2014/95/EU) adopted on 22nd of October 2014 as regards disclosure of CSR information by certain large companies. The Directive 2014/95/EU shall be implemented no later than 6th of December 2016. Therefore, the thesis mainly focuses on analysis of legal regulation of Directive 2014/95/EU as well as European Parliament and Council Directive 2013/34/EU amended by Directive 2014/95/EU. The aim of the abovementioned analysis is to evaluate the efficiency and necessity of legal regulation of Directive 2014/95/EU. The first chapter of the thesis presents the general aspects of CSR information disclosure. In this chapter the two concepts of CSR presented at different periods by the European Commission are compared in order to reveal the multifaceted and the voluntary nature of CSR. Furthermore, the regulation of CSR, necessity of CSR disclosure regulation and benefits of mandatory CSR disclosure are also discussed. The second chapter of the thesis reveals the problems of legal regulation in the European Union before the Directive 2014/95/EU. Comparative method is used to analyze the implementation of the said legal regulation by three European Union countries (Lithuania, France and Denmark) and to ascertain whether legal regulation of Member States solves the CSR disclosure regulation problems within the European Union. The third part of the thesis is dedicated to highlight the changes of legal regulation of CSR information disclosure which arise from Directive 2014/95/EU and to evaluate the effectiveness of legal regulation of Directive 2014/95/EU. For this purpose, the objectives of Directive 2014/95/EU are exposed. Those objectives are determined by problems in the European Union which are caused by legal regulation before Directive 2014/95/EU. In addition to this, it is critically evaluated whether the legal regulation provided in the Directive 2014/95/EU is appropriate to achieve those objectives or not