The Private Regulation of Global Corporate Conduct

This paper explores the dimension of transnational governance associated with civil business regulation. Civil regulations employ private, non-state, or market-based regulatory frameworks to govern multinational firms and global supply networks. While the notion that companies have a responsibility to ‘society’ is more than a century old, historically corporate social responsibility (CSR) was associated with initiatives by firms to address social problems at the community level, often through corporate philanthropy. More recently, CSR has become more international in scope; it now increasingly focuses on the impact of global firms and markets on working conditions, environmental quality, community development, and human rights, especially in developing countries. Civil regulations seek to imbed international markets and firms in a framework of global rules and norms by establishing standards for responsible business conduct as well as mechanisms for promoting compliance with them