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CSR LRN Newsletter Page 8PHD courseCorporate Constitutionalization: Law, Rights and Citizenship in an International Context16 - 20 September 2013, Copenhagen Business School, Denmarkhttp://www.cbs.dk/en/node/252875Registration: by 24 June 2013ECTS: 5Organizer: Doctoral School of Organisation and Management Studies, Department of Business and Politics, CBSFACULTYGrahame Thompson (Visiting Professor, Department of Business and Politics, CBS) (GT)Poul Kjaer (Associate Professor at the Department of Business and Politics, CBS) (PK)Claire O’Brien (Special Adviser, Human Rights and Business, Danish Institute for Human Rights) (CO)Professor Gunther Teubner from Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Germany, who will be visiting CopenhagenUniversity in the Autumn of 2013, Professor Antje Wiener, Centre for Globalization and Governance, University ofHamburg, Germany and Professor Chris Thornhill, Glasgow University, EnglandPREREQUISITESPhD students from mainly Danish and European Universities. Disciplinary areas would be: Business Studies, Law,Political Science, International Relations, International Political Economy, Sociology, Organizational Studies, HumanRights, Anthropology. Students would have the opportunity to present a short paper on their research topic whichwould be discussed as part of the course. All students should attend all of the course to obtain their coursediploma.AIMThis course is aimed at those PhD students embarking on a relatively novel area of scholarship, namely theconstitutionalization of the corporate world and international business organization. This presents a thoroughlyinterdisciplinary context hence the wide range of traditional disciplinary backgrounds from which students wouldbe drawn. The aim is to familiarize students with all relevant aspects of the debates about constitutionalization, itsrelationship to corporate activity and global governance mechanisms, the role of the law in this context, and howthe business world is reacting to these developments via the introduction of human rights and various othercitizenly activities into the day to day operational activities of corporations.Traditionally CSR is the link between corporations and global constitutionalization, so this course will also provide avenue for PhD students Investigating topics in CSR and transnational corporations/transnational law. Given theincreasing international reach of business organizational activity, issues associated with the constitutionalization ofthat world are having a profound impact on business organization, and businesses themselves are in the forefrontin encouraging these developments in various ways.CONTENTThe course will cover the following topics in depth: the contours of constitutionalism and constitutionalization,corporate constitutionalization considered, history of international constitutionalization, The European Union andcorporate citizenship, sociological approaches to constitutionalization, the politics of global corporateconstitutionalization, multinational/transnational corporations and the law, the global human rights agenda andbusiness organization, the ‘law and economics’ approach to corporate constitutionalization, the ‘technologies’ ofconstitutionalization: measurement, indicators and policies, transitional and transnational governance in aconstitutional perspective, ‘how to do’ research on corporate constitutionalization.
CSR LRN Newsletter Page 9CSR as a corporate governance issue. An impetus for a discourseanalysis.Lovisa Halje, Faculty of Law, Uppsala UniversityCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is not a legalconcept to begin with and as such it provides certainchallenges for those of us who in one way or another tryto make it part of the legal discourse. Already finding anadequate working definition or place CSR in a legalframework may be easier said than done. Anotherpossible challenge is how to treat the abundance of nonlegaldocuments that surrounds the concept. The socalledtraditional legal method provides norms oninterpretation and evaluation of black letter law, case lawand, to some extent, soft law. But how should non-legalsources be interpreted and evaluated? Below, I willelaborate on how discourse analysis may be helpful tomeet some of those challenges, using the field ofcorporate governance as an example.In the concrete research situation, defining CSR maynever come up as a problem. The object of study mayprovide a given set of norms regarding socialresponsibility, such as a company’s internal code ofconduct, a commitment to follow a code of conductprovided by an organization, or contractual clausesbetween companies demanding certain actions or nonactions.For an introduction on CSR on a more abstractlevel, however, a definition of the concept may come inhandy. Considering the myriad of discussions – differing intime, space, perspective and theoretical foundations – onthe social responsibility of business and the company’srole in society, a simple spell-out of the acronym may notclarify much.The scholar in question could turn to literature and officialdocuments on the matter and simply choose a definitionfrom one of them. The risk - or chance - is that the scholarwill find, not a definition of what CSR is, but rather, whatCSR is not. A common approach to describing CSR isnamely to put it in relation to something else. One versionof this is that CSR is when a company goes beyond what isdemanded economically, technically and legally. 1Another, that CSR means that a company not only servesthe shareholders’ interest of maximum gain, but also takesother stakeholders into account. 2 For a working definition,or an initial description of the concept CSR, very well so.Indeed, a negating approach can be very fruitful whenexploring the legal limits and possibilities of a corporateboard to apply CSR norms. There is no point in trying tofind the “essence” of CSR, when what is interesting inpractice is the deviation from the shareholder’s assumedinterest of maximum gain.The discussion on the social responsibilitiesof business is hardly new. Nor is thebalancing of interests in the managementof the company. But by putting your legalglasses on, going to the sources, andconfronting whatever your image of CSR is,you may find a stone not yet turned. Or, forthat matter, a new way of turning it.However, I would suggest the legal scholar to dig deeperinto the soil beneath the presumed social responsibility.Which discursive context(s) does CSR arrive from? The aimwith such a “discursive approach” on CSR is to deepenthe knowledge on context(s) around CSR, rather than toreach The Optimal Definition of the concept. Nonetheless,a discursive approach can fulfil a defining purpose in thatit clarifies which type of social responsibility is of interest tothe research project in question. Whereas a catchyphrase to define CSR runs the risk of meaning all andnothing, just as the spell-out of the acronym, a thoroughdiscussion on CSR and where it derives from can bringmore flesh to the bones. A discursive approach also hasthe possibilities to concretize the concept and providehypothetical conflict situations (cases) that can be usedas a starting point for legal studies.
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