On the one hand corporations have promoted social wealth on the basis of their efficient systems, on the other hand they have produced unfavorable side effects to the society. Nowadays injuries or wrongdoings caused by corporations are ever increasing and this calls for legal regulations. The term of corporate social responsibility could be used in ethical or moral as well as legal. And it is true that the moral and ethical considerations play an important role in actualization of corporate social responsibility. Nevertheless this paper focuses on legal debates over corporate social responsibility.
The exiting legal debates over corporate social responsibility have deep similarities despite superficial differences. Almost all the separate debates have (1) presupposed that the problems created by corporation are really problems created by large publicly held corporations, (2) aimed to reform those corporations rather than to eliminate them, and (3) seen the imposition of new duties towards nonshareholder constituents on directors and officers as the best way to make corporations answerable not just to shareholders but to the wider society.
This paper analyzes the legal debates over corporate social responsibility that have been developed in foreign countries and puts forth some opinions how Korean Corporation Law should accomodate corporate social responsibility.