CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility, Leadership, Sustainability and Society

CSR is often discussed as a voluntary rather than mandatory approach to doing business, being considered as something that institutions to do go beyond day to day expectations of running their business in order to deliver wider societal benefits.  However legal frameworks around differing aspects of responsible business practice, such as upholding human rights, protecting the environment, business reporting etc, are in play in different jurisdictions.  In recent years there has been an increasing focus on ethical business practices, corporate governance and societal impacts of business in international, regional and domestic arenas.

You can search for information in this area across Library Search, the databases and via internet searching. See the earlier part of this guide for more information on those search options.  

You can use the Library Search service to surface discussions in this area.    You may need to use a variety of different search terms to disciver relevant content.

Illustrative search terms for legal aspects of corporate social responsibility

• Law and (corporate social responsibility or CSR)
• Legal regulation and (corporate social responsibility or CSR)
• Legal profession and (corporate social responsibility or CSR)
• Voluntary / mandatory (corporate social responsibility or CSR)
• Corporate responsibilities
• Relationship between (CSR or corporate social responsibility) and corporate governance
• Business and human rights or Human rights and transnational business
• Environmental law and (corporate social responsibility or CSR)
• Climate regulation and (corporate social responsibility or CSR)

Try some of these suggestions or select your own search terms to find alternative materials and also delve deeper into the issues by following up with more complex searching via the online databases and by advanced internet searching.
 

Here is an example of database searching using the Business Source Complete database.  Note that you enter much more focused searches using an online database than is possible with Library Search and can use your Search History to review and modify your search results.  Check out the Search techniques and Databases sections of this guide for more hints and tips on effective searching and for recommended databases.

Database Searching Example - Business Source Complete  (click screenshot for enlarged view)

News Sources

The news databases will be useful for reading current commentary and public opinion on CSR related topics. 

 A range of full text current and archive news sources are available.  Use the online news LibGuide to find out more about these news sources.

You will find lots of discussion of this topic in content distributed via web pages and reports of various bodies and organisations.  You can use advanced google searching to search by topic and focus on particular legal organisations.

Example : advanced google search for csr related information produced by the SRA (Solicitors Regulation Authority)