Compliance-Richtlinien

Compliance guidelines (“Codes of Ethics”) are an established element of transnational corporate governance. Here, the problems related to private regulation become apparent: Although private regulation may be an instrument for reducing the currently existing regulatory deficits of domestic state law, it has on its part substantial legitimacy deficits.

Taking this into account, domestic civil law is subject to a change of its function. To the extent that the challenges connected with the “welfare state” in the 20th century resulted in a “materialization” of the originally formal private law, it is required to meet the challenges of the “cooperative state” in the 21st century by a “proceduralization” which both promotes the regulatory effects of private rules and considers their relation to the public good. Assuming such functional change, the author makes concrete proposals for reforms in the field of Conflict of Laws, the law of contract and the horizontal effect of fundamental rights between private parties, which he formulates by taking as an example the labor law debate on compliance guidelines.