Call for Papers: International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility, Business Responsibilities for Human Rights, and International Law

The Institute of Food and Resource Economics (Faculty of Life Sciences), University of Copenhagen, in cooperation with the Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (CBSCSR) and the Department of Law, Copenhagen Business School, have issued a call for papers for an International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility, Business Responsibilities for Human Rights, and International Law: Where Do We Go After the Final Report of the SRSG on Human Rights and Business?, November 6-7, 2008, in Copenhagen. Here's the call:

The overall topic of this conference will be the possible directions of the future interrelationship between CSR, Business Responsibilities for Human Rights, and regulatory approaches under and/or informed by international law. The Final Report of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Human Rights and Business (SRSG, Professor John Ruggie), currently expected to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Commission in June 2008, will form a point of departure, with the understanding that the Report and the extensive consultative process leading to it provide a detailed and well researched basis and recommendations for future approaches but that these may also be open to discussion. It is understood that CSR and Business Responsibilities for Human Rights are not necessarily the same, but that the two influence each other in several ways.

The conference is an opportunity for researchers and practitioners within law and business to get together and share views on the future directions, challenges and potential of the voluntary or mandatory character of CSR and Business Responsibilities for Human Rights, and international law as a possible avenue for informing and regulating both. The conference is a two day conference and will include plenary sessions as well as thematic track sessions.

Topics to be addressed during the conference will include:

• CSR as an emerging topic of legal relevance
• The recommendations of the SRSG: Implications and role for international law and intergovernmental regulatory initiatives
• CSR and regulation of business responsibilities for human rights: challenges and potential facing legal theory and practice
• CSR and regulation of business responsibilities for human rights: challenges and potential for management theory and practice
• Global legitimacy: Challenges facing the future direction of CSR and business responsibilities for human rights
• CSR, business responsibilities for human rights, and liability issues: challenges and potential for management and legal advisers
• Past international (UN, EU, others . . .) and non-state (corporate, NGO, others . . .) initiatives on regulating CSR and business responsibilities for human rights: Lessons and inspiration for the future
• CSR, public procurement and public policy: Challenges and potential for future legal regulation and management
• Corporate Governance and CSR: Challenges and potential for future legal regulation and management
• CSR schemes and accountability: Regulatory and management aspects
• Policy as soft regulation? CSR and business responsibilities for human rights in international trade and development policies?

Abstracts for papers addressing the topics set out above are invited by this call. Abstracts should be 200-300 words. They should be sent to Karin Buhmann, Associate Professor, Institute of Food and Resource Economics, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, e-mail buhmann@life.ku.dk no later than 1 May 2008. Submitted abstracts for papers will be reviewed for acceptance by a group comprising researchers from the organising institutions. Response on whether abstracts are accepted will be sent to submitters by mid-June 2008. Final papers (8,000-12,000 words including footnotes and references) should be submitted by 20 September 2008.

Decisions regarding the fora in which the papers will be presented - either plenary sessions or parallel workshops - will be made after the conference organisers have received the abstracts and selected the papers that may be presented at the conference.

The conference language will be English. Papers should be in English. Abstracts for papers may be submitted in English or in a Scandinavian language.The organisers of the conference are negotiating with international publishers regarding the publication of the conference papers in an anthology. Whereas papers accepted for presentation at the conference will be accepted on the basis of abstracts, acceptance for publication will depend on the quality of the final and complete paper.