Kim, Kee Beom --- "A Multilateral Contribution to Corporate Standards of Behaviour: The ILO’s Declaration on Multinational Enterprises" [2005] ELECD 212; in Tully, Stephen (ed), "Research Handbook on Corporate Legal Responsibility" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005)

Book Title: Research Handbook on Corporate Legal Responsibility

Editor(s): Tully, Stephen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781843768203

Section: Chapter 18

Section Title: A Multilateral Contribution to Corporate Standards of Behaviour: The ILO’s Declaration on Multinational Enterprises

Author(s): Kim, Kee Beom

Number of pages: 15

Extract:

18 A multilateral contribution to corporate
standards of behaviour: the ILO's
declaration on multinational enterprises
Kee Beom Kim



Introduction
Concerns over the social impacts of multinational enterprises (MNEs) have had
a lingering tenacity. The perceived threats to the sovereignty and welfare of
host countries posed by MNEs ignited an international effort to develop a
multilateral framework for corporate regulation in the 1970s. The neo-liberal
paradigms of the 1980s and early 1990s effectively replaced apprehension with
more accommodating stances. Since the mid-1990s, however, the social
conduct of MNEs has again come under public scrutiny, albeit by different
actors from those in the 1970s. In response, many enterprises have voluntarily
engaged in unilateral or multi-stakeholder initiatives to improve the social
impacts of their own operations as well as those of their business partners.
Furthermore, a growing number of enterprises have recognised that social
responsibility can contribute to the sustainability of their businesses. None the
less, the voluntary nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities has
raised a number of credibility and verification issues, which in turn have led
some actors to call for legally binding frameworks for the regulation of MNEs.
This chapter evaluates historical achievements, weighs them against recent
trends, considers future prospects for the regulation of international business and
raises a number of policy implications. Specifically, the chapter examines the
Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and
Social Policy and the growing number and diversity of voluntary private sector
initiatives. The various legal issues which ...