Social Responsibility of Companies: Ethics, Marketing or Law?

Abstract

This article deals with the legal problem that arises when it is questioned whether the codes of conduct are likely to be considered as legal norms or not. Therefore, the object of study is to contribute to clarify the discussion that arises around social responsibility from a legal angle. In this way, a transversal analysis will be carried out on the legal nature of the codes of conduct, which seek, beyond that they have the character of soft law, that they contain rights that are effective or enforceable. Based on this, the author proposes several hypotheses that highlight the legal effectiveness of the aforementioned codes. First, it indicates that the code of conduct could be considered a unilateral act of self-limitation of the employer's powers. In this sense, the clauses of the codes of conduct that limit or deny the rights of the worker must be null and ineffective seen from the legal perspective. Second, the author also emphasizes highlighting how the code of conduct could be applied in the cases of multinational companies, considering whether it is possible for workers to raise the enforceability of the code of the parent company. Parallel to this, the solutions that have been given regarding the enforceability of the codes of conduct are shown. Finally, the author justifies the need to find a legal response to the problem of the legal nature of codes of conduct: to generate a legal regulation of Corporate Social Responsibility. This must take into account the historical development of regulations and their systematization according to the geographical scope, or the source of origin, whether public or private, or depending on the legal effectiveness of the CSR instruments. In summary, the author announces that the solution is that the codes of conduct that originate from soft law become hard law.