How to Achieve Sustainable Companies: Soft law (Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Investment) or Hard law (company law)
Sürdürülebilir Şirketlere Nasıl Ulaşılabilir: Esnek Hukuk Kuralları (Kurumsal Sosyal Sorumluluk ve Sürdürülebilir Yatırımlar) mı Yoksa Bağlayıcı Hukuk Kuralları (Şirketler Hukuku) mı?
Muzaffer Eroğlu
This article examines the conflict between soft law and hard law initiatives regarding corporate responsibility and sustainable business. In this respect, firstly, major soft law initiatives regarding corporate responsibility and sustainability are discussed. In this section various forms of soft law instruments are illustrated such as code of conducts, corporate social responsibility, sustainability (environment, social and governance) reports and sustainability indices. They are examined by questioning their efficiency in creating responsible and sustainable business. Secondly, problematic features of soft law instruments in creating responsible and sustainable business are identified. While doing that conflict between soft law initiatives and core company law principles are highlighted. Finally, proposals for enforceable laws and regulations are offered.
Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, Company Law, Sustainable Investment, Soft Law, Hard Law.
Bu makalede kurumsal sorumluluk ve sürdürülebilir işletme faaliyetiyle ilgili esnek ve bağlayıcı olan hukuk kuralları girişimleri arasındaki çatışma incelenmiştir. Bu bağlamda, öncelikle, kurumsal sorumluluk ve sürdürülebilirlik konusunda en önemli esnek hukuk kuralları tartışılmıştır. Bu bölümde davranış kuralları, kurumsal sosyal sorumluluk, sürdürülebilirlik (çevre, sosyal ve yönetişim) raporları ve sürdürülebilirlik endeksleri gibi çeşitli şekillerdeki esnek hukuk araçları incelenmiştir. Bu araçlar sorumlu ve sürdürülebilir bir işletme faaliyeti yaratmaktaki etkinlikleri sorgulanarak incelenmiştir. İkinci olarak, esnek hukuk araçlarının sorumlu ve sürdürülebilir bir işletme faaliyeti yaratmadaki sorunlu yönleri tespit edilmiştir. Bunu yaparken de, esnek hukuk girişimleri ve temel şirketler hukuku ilkeleri arasındaki çatışma vurgulanmıştır. Son olarak ise, uygulanabilir yasal düzenlemeler ve hukuk kurallarına ilişkin öneriler sunulmuştur.
Kurumsal Sosyal Sorumluluk, Sürdürülebilirlik, Şirketler Hukuku, Sürdürülebilir Yatırım, Esnek Hukuk Kuralları, Bağlayıcı Hukuk Kuralları.
I. INTRODUCTION
Sustainability is a relatively new and modern concept and is broadly referred by companies as a method of conducting their business1. There is a growing trend in business world to act in sustainable and responsible ways. Almost all business actors claim that companies, capital markets and financial institutions must implement sustainable and responsible business practices into their operations and sustainable investment must be at the top of their agenda2. Even though the foundation of sustainability movements can be found in ethics, there also studies indicating business case for sustainability3. In other words, it is claimed not only as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) issue but also there is a business case to be sustainable4. Accordingly, there is a broad agreement in business and ethics that companies should conduct their businesses in sustainable and responsible ways and investors should prefer sustainable investments. Therefore, sustainable companies and sustainable investment are considered as supplementary to each other.
In order to accomplish sustainable and responsible companies and create sustainable investment, many initiatives have been created in recent years. However, sustainability is still a vague concept and must be widely discussed from various perspectives. Sustainability discussion has social, economic and financial angles. In addition to these, sustainability is a legal matter and must also be discussed from a legal viewpoint. Sustainable business requires changes in rules and regulations that cover the relevant areas of law. In some cases, there is a need for interference to very basic regulations of company and investment laws.
In early years, sustainability issues were not fully considered as a legal matter. However, in recent years, discussions for the place of sustainable investment and sustainable companies in legal environment have increased5. Thus, in addition to other elements, it can easily be claimed that sustainable business is now considered as a legal matter. Accordingly many legal studies focus on connection between sustainability, responsible business and law. There are plenty of efforts to identify the legal obstacles and search for possibilities for sustainable companies and responsible business models within finance law, capital market law, company law and corporate governance. In addition to these, there are many regulatory initiatives focusing on sustainability issues because in order to achieve sustainable companies, efficient legal instruments must be created. Sustainability issues are now an element of working agenda of regulatory agencies and parliaments.
