Legal Regulation of Corporate Social Responsibility ― A Meta-regulation Approach of Law for Raising Csr in a Weak Economy

Even though Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a widely accepted concept promoted by different stakeholders, business corporations' internal strategies, known as corporate self-regulation in most of the weak economies, respond poorly to this responsibility. Major laws relating to corporate regulation and responsibilities of these economies do not possess adequate ongoing influence to insist on corporate self-regulation to create a socially responsible corporate culture.

This book describes how the laws relating to CSR could contribute to the inclusion of CSR principles at the core of the corporate self-regulation of these economies in general, without being intrusive in normal business practice. It formulates a meta-regulation approach to law, particularly by converging patterns of private ordering and state control in contemporary corporate law from the perspective of a weak economy. It proposes that this approach is suitable for alleviating regulators' limited access to information and expertise, inherent limitations of prescriptive rules, ensuring corporate commitment, and enhance the self-regulatory capacity of companies.

This book describes various meta-regulation strategies for laws to link social values to economic incentives and disincentives, and to indirectly influence companies to incorporate CSR principles at the core of their self-regulation strategies. It investigates this phenomenon using Bangladesh as a case study.

Dr. Mia Mahmudur Rahim teaches in the School of Accountancy at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. He obtained his LLB with Honours and LLM from Dhaka University Bangladesh; his LLM in International Economic Law from Warwick University, England, as a Chevening Scholar; his MPA is from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy with a National University of Singapore Graduate Scholarship, and his PhD from Macquarie University with a Macquarie University Research Excellence Scholarship. Before joining QUT he was a Deputy District and Session Judge in Bangladesh. He also worked at the Bangladesh Law Commission and the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He is an External Member of the Center for Legal Governance of Macquarie University.