Reconciling Regulatory Approaches to Corporate Social Responsibility: The European Union, OECD and United Nations Compared

In recent years the European Union, along with other international organizations has attempted to address the globally relevant problem of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). In doing so, the EU has restricted itself to the voluntary mechanisms advocated by business as a means of tackling the issues. This is in direct contrast to other organizations relevant in the European context such as the OECD and the UN. This article compares these three different regulatory frameworks for CSR. It asks which of them is most effective at reconciling the inherent tension between voluntarism and the case for hard regulation as its polar opposite. To this effect, the article examines the EU, the OECD and the UN’s most recent initiatives; that is, the Global Compact and the Norms on the Responsibility of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with regard to human rights.