Menschenrechtsverantwortung multinationaler Unternehmen und Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Since the 1990s, multinational enterprises have been required to commit to human rights. International state practice endeavors to comply with this, but only with voluntary initiatives, namely codes of conduct. The focus is in particular on the UN Global Compact, the Tripartite Declaration of Principles on Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The legal quality of these initiatives, which are increasingly criticized by non-governmental organizations for their lack of judiciary, is unclear. Endeavoring to differentiate between legal dogma and legal policy, this work examines so-called Soft Law, a generic term for international law norms whose legal quality is diffuse and has been the subject of a recurring debate since the 1970s.