| Ever since its establishment, the corporation institution has spread rapidly and become increasingly popular as it plays positive roles in creating wealth around the world. However, while acquiring benefits, corporations consume enormous physical and social resources, therefore, while enjoying benefits, corporations ought to shoulder corresponding responsibilities, i.e., to assume social liabilities accordingly. These liabilities are those in debt to consumers, employees, creditors, communities and environments. In case a corporation pay not enough respect to the interests of its stakeholders, it actually loses the necessity to exist continuously. Therefore, the traditional concept that corporations serve their fundament purpose of making profits and should not be imposed on social responsibilities is outdated, and the rise of corporate social responsibility is inevitable.Nowadays, more and more countries and people begin to concern with corporate social responsibilities, China is no exception. From the legal point of view, many legal experts and scholars have written books to explain the meaning of corporate social responsibility, and to promote the development of the theory of corporate social responsibility. In the meantime, legislators also attach great importance to corporate social responsibility, and corporate social responsibility was first introduced into the corporate law revised in 2005 in the field of laws. Therefore, it becomes the topics of this thesis and the original intention of this writing to keep trace of the theoretical development of corporate social responsibility, and to respond to the actual needs of the community, and to explore possible ways of improving corporate social responsibilities suitable for current China's actual conditions.Presently, the development of corporate social responsibility in our country is still in its infancy, the relevant legal system and judicial practice leave much for improvement. Based on previous studies, this thesis gives a systematic and in-depth exploration on the basic theory of corporate social responsibility, the construction of domestic corporate social responsibility and other aspects by employing methods of normative analysis, empirical analysis and comparative analysis.This thesis consists of four parts. In Part One, this author traces the origin of corporate social responsibility, reveals its essential nature, elaborates and analyzes classic expressions of domestic and international corporate social responsibility, thus this author arrives at her own conclusion that corporate social responsibility refers to legal responsibilities and ethical responsibilities owed by a corporation to such stakeholders as creditors, employees, consumers, communities, environment and social welfare services in addition to its shareholders. In Part Two, this author studies enactments and practice of corporate social responsibility in the United States, Europe, Japan and other countries and regions, summarizes their characteristics, and analyzes their borrowing value in the formulation of our system. In Part Three, this author illustrates the current development of the domestic status quo of corporate social responsibility, analyzes their existing problems and explores their causes in depth.In Part Four, on the base of the above-mentioned analyses and researches, this author holds that modern corporations in China need improvement in the system of corporate social responsibility. To achieve improvement, such aspects as the operation of law, corporations themselves, the governments and the social communities must improve. First of all, it must establish an effective law operational mechanism of corporate social responsibility, so that there are laws to be observed, and each law must be observed, and each law must be strictly enforced; Second, corporations must improve by themselves in their internal management structures; Third, the governments must improve their administrative actions in promoting the development of corporate social responsibility. Finally, the social communities must popularize vigorously the concept of corporate social responsibility and strengthen social supervision. Only by these ways can the concept of corporate social responsibility become popular among our people, thus corporate social responsibilities can be effectively fulfilled. |
