Moral responsibility and legal liability

The Norwegian Forum for Environment and Developement had the pleasure of hosting more than 200 guests at the international conference Corporate Social Responsibility: Moral responsibility and legal liability, in February. The conference took place at Litteraturhuset in Oslo, and was an expert consultation exploring the issue of CSR as a moral responsibility as well as a legal liability. 

There is an ongoing discourse regarding the norms underpinning CSR, and how to measure corporate performance. Furthermore there are various policy discussions on the nature of sanctions mechanisms, whether global or national, legally binding or voluntary, minimum standards or common norms. Experience has demonstrated that these are not necessarily opposites, but help shape an emerging normative and legal regulatory framework for corporate activities, framing the policy arena for states, NGOs, the UN and the corporate sector.

There is a need to clarify the roles and expectations of these actors and to critically assess whether current responses are adequate to deal with present realities, and to suggest others. Based on the evidence from real-world examples of corporate behaviour and analysis of available policy responses and sanctions, the conference provided a framework where various instruments that can or should prevent unacceptable corporate activities were discussed. Enclosed you will find some of the presentations that made this debate possible.