Corporate Accountability
Getting Started
The new BSR issue brief is an Overview of Corporate Social Responsibility.
Keywords: corporate responsibility, corporate social responsibility, business and social responsibility, business and human rights, corporate citizenship, corporate accountability, sustainability, ethical corporation, environmental responsibility, and international business enterprises - social aspects.
UN keywords: transnational corporations, corporate social responsibility, business ethics, standards of conduct.
Issues related to corporate responsibility: business ethics, community investment, environment, corporate governance, human rights, marketplace and workplace. See the section on "other issues" for more assistance on researching some of these areas.
Some Definitions
Greenwashing
From the CorpWatch web site...
Oxford English Dictionary Definition:
green*wash: (n) Disinformation disseminated by an organisation so as to present an environmentally responsible public image. Derivatives greenwashing (n). Origin from green on the pattern of whitewash.
CorpWatch definition:
green*wash: (gr~en-w^osh) -washers, -washing, -washed 1.) The phenomenon of socially and environmentally destructive corporations attempting to preserve and expand their markets by posing as friends of the environment and leaders in the struggle to eradicate poverty. 2) Environmental whitewash. 3) Hogwash.
Bluewashing
"The humanitarian-themed variant of greenwash is called "bluewash" - for the color of the United Nations flag." (Information from CorpWatch web site.)
A note about using web resources...
Critically evaluate what you find on the web. Be sure to consider the accuracy and quality of the data; completeness; coverage; timeliness; stability; and authority of the source. Understand who is posting the information by reading "about us" or like sections on the web sites.
Here today, gone tomorrow. If you find something useful on the web, print it off or download it.
Research Guides
These guides are good places to begin researching a topic. Often guides will point out relevant print and electronic sources.
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Hands-On Corporate Research Guide (CorpWatch).
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Company Information (UC Berkeley Library).
A handy guide to locating information on corporate structures, subsidiaries, etc. -
Research Guide: Company Information (Stanford University Business School).
Tips on researching company information and market performance. There is also a Brief Guide to Corporate Reports.
Standards
For the most part, standards, guidelines, and regulations are produced by external organizations (governments, NGOs, IGOs, advocacy groups, and others) and are designed to support and enhance corporate accountability. Listed below are a few of many such documents.
International Organizations
International Labour Organization, Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy.
International Monetary Fund, Standards and Codes.
Policy Brief, The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises: A Key Corporate Responsibility Instrument.
UN, Norms on the responsibilities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises with regard to human rights, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/12/Rev.2 (2003).
Commentary on the norms on the responsibilities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises with regard to human rights, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/38/Rev.2 (2003).
Articles and Reports about the UN Norms (compiled by Business & Human Rights).
Business & Professional Organizations
Ethical Trading Initiative, ETI Base Code.
International Chamber of Commerce's Corporate Governance Web Site. Includes codes, best practices, and case studies.
International Organization for Standardization. In particular, see ISO 14000 (environmental management).
Other Collections of Standards (NGOs, Civil Society, etc.)
Business & Human Rights, Principles. Links to guidelines prepared by business, governments, judges, mixture, NGOs, and IGOs.
Center for Ethical Business Cultures. See Ethics Resources section for links to codes of conduct, standards, etc.
Cicr.net, Virtual Resource Center, Codes of Conduct, Standards, and Guidelines (select from drop down box under "search for tool types").
Codes of Conduct. Provides links to company codes, industry codes, nterest group codes, etc.
European Corporate Governance Institute, Index of Codes. Collection of codes from around the world.
Human Rights Library, Human Rights Guidelines for Business. Good collection of links to guidelines and codes.
IISD, Business and Sustainable Development: A Global Guide. From this web site, access information on guiding principles and systems and standards.
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, Code of Conduct Comparison.
Maquilasolidarity.org, Codes of Conduct & Independent Monitoring.
Social Accountability International, SA8000 Standard.
Social Venture Network, Standards of Corporate Responsibility.
US Council for International Business, Compendium of Corporate Responsibility Initiatives.
Web Resources
These resources will provide access to other resources for researching this multi-faceted area. Some of the resources focus on corporate accountability issues and some focus on business and human rights issues.
Freely Available Sites
Amnesty International, Economic Globalization and Human Rights. Links to AI reports and documents. Also contains links to related web sites.
Business & Human Rights. Many documents, reports, and articles related to this topic. A very good collection of links to other relevant sites.
Business for Social Responsibility (BSR). A good web site filled with information on corporate responsibility. Under "Resources" find the following: issue papers, news, labor law information center. The new issue brief is an Overview of Corporate Social Responsibility.
Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, Codes of Ethics Online.
Center of Concern, Corporate Accountability Project. Resources include articles and links to related sources.
CorpWatch: Holding Corporations Accountable. Provides information on many issues related to CSR, including tobacco and sweatshops. Includes links to other sites.
European Union, Corporate Social Responsibility. EU policies and documents on CSR.
Global Citizen Project, see Corporate Social Responsibility section of the web site.
Globalization and Labor Standards (GALS). Contains abstracts of recent law journal articles exploring international labor standards and rights in the global economy.
Human Rights Library, Business and Human Rights Links. A good collection of relevant links.
Human Rights Watch, Corporations and Human Rights. A collection of HRW reports and documents, including a commentary on business and human rights.
Business and Human Rights (2002 Report).
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. Lots of information on a variety of topics.
International Corporate Standards (see chapter 18, International Environmental Law and Policy: A Comprehensive Reference Source).
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), issues reports and information on trade and investment, development, economic policy and much more. See the Research Library for a database containing information on sustainable development and related topics.
Business and Sustainable Development: A Global Guide. From this web site, access information on systems and standards and business tools.
International Labour Organization (ILO), Business and Social Initiatives Database. The database features corporate policies and reports, codes of conduct, accreditation and certification criteria, and labeling and other programs.
Transparency International. Contains many resources including country reports, a Global Corruption Report, best practices documentation.
World Bank, Corporate Social Responsibility.
Commercial Databases
For remote access to some of these databases, please be sure to follow the Proxy Server Setup Instructions.
Social Science Research Network (SSRN). Contains working papers and journal articles (prior to publication) in the areas of law, economics, financial economics and more. (Boalt only).
Ethnic NewsWatch. Full-text collection of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press. Includes articles editorials, columns, and reviews which provide a broad diversity of perspectives and viewpoints. (UCB only).
Gender Watch. GenderWatch is a full text database of publications that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas. Publications include academic and scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, regional publications, books, booklets and pamphlets,conference proceedings, and government, NGO and special reports. (UCB only).
Other useful databases are available through UCB Indexes and Abstracts and the California Digital Library (electronic journals and databases) (UCB only).
Print Resources
To locate print materials in our collection, use the online catalog, LAWCAT.The catalog will identify relevant books and journals in our collection. LAWCAT cannot identify relevant articles contained in the journals, see the next section of this guide. Begin searching using keywords and then use relevant subject headings to locate more materials on point.
Relevant subject headings:
Social responsibility of business
Corporations -- Political aspects
Industrial policy -- Moral and ethical aspects
Business ethics
International business enterprises -- Social aspects
Corporate Responsibility and Labour Rights: Codes of Conduct in the Global Economy (London; Sterling, VA: Earthscan, 2002) [on order].
Corporate Responsibility: Private Initiatives and Public Goals (Paris, France: OECD, 2001) [K1322 .C67 2001].
Global Codes of Conduct: An Idea Whose Time has Come (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2000) [K1315 .G76 2000].
Human Rights Standards and the Responsibility of Transnational Corporations (The Hague; Boston: Kluwer Law International, 1999) [K1322 .A93 1999].
Nicola Jagers, Corporate Human Rights Obligations: In Search of Accountability (Antwerpen; New York: Intersentia, 2002) [K3240 .J33 2002].
Journal Articles
It is not possible to point out the journals in law and the social sciences that deal with this topic. In order to locate articles on point, search the journal indexes listed below. Indexes provide access to more relevant literature than searching full-text law reviews on Lexis and Westlaw.
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (London: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Chicago: American Association of Law Libraries, 1960- ) [Reading Room K2 .I38 IFLP]. Also available on the web (UCB only). A multilingual index to articles and book reviews appearing in approximately 492 legal journals published worldwide, except those from the U.S., the U.K., Canada, and Australia.
Index to Legal Periodicals and Books (New York: H.W. Wilson Co.) [Reading Room K2 .I38 ILP]. Also available on LEXIS (LAWREV library, ILP file) and WESTLAW (ILP) (UCB only). This is the only print index with good historical coverage. Covers 925 legal journals, yearbooks, institutes, bar association organs, law reviews, and government publications originating in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.
Legal Journals Index (Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire: Legal Information Resources Ltd., 1986-999). Available on WESTLAW (LJI) (UCB only). Indexes approximately 485 journals from the UK & Europe. Coverage is from 1986 on.
Legal Resource Index. Available on LEXIS (LAWREV library, LGLIND file) and WESTLAW (LRI). Also available on from the Law Library's homepage as LegalTrac (UCB only). The print equivalent is called Current Law Index (Los Altos, CA: Information Access Corp.,1980-) [Reading Room K2 .C8]. Indexes over 850 journals from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia.
PAIS International (New York: Public Affairs Information Service, 1991- ) [print version available in main library]. Also available on the Web (UCB only). Provides international coverage of materials in government, international relations, legislation, political science, statistics, and related areas.
Other social science indexes and abstracts are available through UCB Indexes and Abstracts, such as ECONLIT, Social Science Abstracts, and PA Research II (ProQuest). All of these tools may be useful in locating literature in this area. (UCB only).
Other Issues
These guides and resources will point you to sources in related areas of research.
Forced Labor/Labor Rights
See guide to researching Forced Labor.
Corporate Environmental Practices
CorporateRegister.com is a directory of published corporate environmental and social reports.
Human Rights
Environment
See the ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law: International Environmental Law.
See also Environmental Resources on the Internet.
International Economic Law
United Nations
United Nations Documentation Research Guide (United Nations Dag Hammarskjo"ld Library). Good introduction to researching UN documents.
UNBISNET. Catalogue of UN publications and documentation indexed by the United Nations Dag Hammarskjo"ld Library and the Library of the UN Office at Geneva.
See the ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law: United Nations.
Examples
BSR, Overview of Corporate Social Responsibility has sample policies and links to the company's web site.
Business & Human Rights, Companies with Human Rights Policies.
Cicr.net, Virtual Resource Center, Codes of Conduct, Standards, and Guidelines (select from drop down box under "search for tool types").
Center for Ethical Business Cultures. Contains a list of links to corporate social responsibility programs.
Corporate Watch Resources, includes company profiles and archived articles about companies.
CSRWire, Corporate Citizenship Reports, provides access to a collection of corporate non-financial reports, including sustainability, the environment, health and safety, and corporate citizenship.
Current Awareness
Business for Social Responsibility, Corporate Social Responsibility: News.
Ethical Corporation Online (can subscribe for free for three months).
Linkages (IISD) latest news on environment and development issues.
