THE QUASI-LEGISLATIVE MEASURES OF INTERNATIONAL CORPORATIONS

Abstract

The contemporary impact of international corporates on individuals and societies is obvious and multifaced. It manifests in various ways. The multinationals determine individual and collective tastes, needs and customs. Firstly, they do it through the supply of goods and services. But there is also a second – quasi-legislative layer of this. They shape their environment through the soft norms they issue. The researches prove that socio-cultural changes are both: created and addressed by international corporates that actively participate informing them by regulating lives of individuals and the entire societies. At the bottom of this phenomenon is the question if the measures introduced by them can be seen as the (soft) type of laws or not. The findings are undoubted: they are the norms of a trans-border impact, they cross the jurisdictional boundaries. A matter of scientific reflection is our ability to fully understand and assess this impact? It appears clear is that this impact changes the economic behaviors and the social expectations. It also has a strong cultural dimension. Moreover, it may influence the politics – we witness the situation where the way the international corporations act (or just tolerate some actions) has an impact on shifting political powers. Of course, there are also plenty of good examples of the corporates engagements like public pledges that raise quality of peoples’ lives or limit the nature imprint, CSR activities, codes of ethics that promote desired behaviors across the cultures etc. The lawyers’ question is whether the norms (global standards, published principles, policies, codes of conduct, instructions, recommendations, guidelines, terms of reference, manuals etc.) introduced by mighty international corporates are laws or non-laws. If indeed they are informal laws, the corporates’ law-making is hardly controlled given the limited reach of states versus the international coverage of the corporates.