Soft Law Requirements with Hard Law Effects? The Influence of CSR on Corporate Law from a German Perspective

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a ‘hot topic’ in German corporate law in recent years as witnessed by a surge of recent publications concerning this subject. In Germany, CSR—a ‘foreign’ concept which is usually referred to by its English name—may have been neglected and not taken seriously by many corporate lawyers initially. However, CSR has become virtually impossible to ignore not least due to the European Union’s Directive 2014/95/EU dealing with the disclosure of non-financial information by large public-interest undertakings. CSR, a concept usually associated with classic soft law guidelines, has thus entered the stage of hard law at least in the area of reporting. This development is not only of academic interest, but it obviously affects company directors in significant ways as well. Are we witnessing a ‘paradigm shift’ or even a ‘revolution’ in corporate law? And, most importantly from a director’s perspective, is this accompanied by the establishment of new duties? This chapter aims to explore these questions using German corporate law as an example.