A Study On Corporate Social Responsibility Clauses Of Brics’ Investment Treaties

With the deepening of international economic exchanges,the value pursuit of economic activities by the international community has long been developed from a single interest to diverse interests such as economic and social interests.As the main carrier of international economic activities,multinational corporations often transfer their internal costs to other places,pollute the local ecological environment and infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of local labors.However,there are a small number of relevant regulations on the corporate social responsibility of multinational corporations at the international level,and most of them lack compulsory restraint.Therefore,the degree of social responsibility of multinational corporations is not high.As an important force and emerging economy of developing countries,the BRICS often become victims of such infringement when attracting foreign investment.Although five countries’ domestic laws have relevant provisions on corporate social responsibility,their investment treaties are fresh.Regulations which exist cannot effectively restrain the wrongful behavior of multinational corporations.Faced with the problems of multinational corporations’ responsibilities and the lack of institutions at the international level,it is urgent to actively explore the construction of corporate social responsibility clauses in BRICS investment treaties.The first part is “Basic Theory of Corporate Social Responsibility Clauses in BRICS’ International Economic and Trade Treaties”.It expounds the significance of existing corporate social responsibility clauses in BRICS’ economic and trade treaties,and introduces the historical evolution of the corporate social responsibility clauses in BRICS’ economic and trade treaties.The basic categories of corporate social responsibility in BRICS’ economic and trade treaties were clarified,and the analysis of the content of the following articles was paved by sorting out the corporate social responsibility clauses in BRICS’ economic and trade treaties.The second part is “Research on Environmental Protection Responsibilities in Corporate Social Responsibility of BRICS’ Investment Treaties”.It expounds the necessity to require the enterprises to protect the environment in BRICS’ investment treaties,clarifies the basis of corporate environmental protection responsibility,points out the shortcomings of the regulation of corporate environmental protection responsibility in BRICS’ investment treaties by analyzing the regulations of corporate environmental protection responsibility.Finally,by learning from the existing rules,to propose the perfect path of corporate environmental protection responsibility clause in BRICS’ investment treaties.The third part is “Research on the Protection of Labor Rights and Interests in Corporate Social Responsibility of BRICS’ Investment Treaties”.It expounds the necessity to require the enterprises to protect the labor rights in BRICS’ investment treaties,clarifies the basis of corporate labor rights protection responsibility,points out the shortcomings of the regulation of corporate labor rights protection responsibility in BRICS’ investment treaties by analyzing the regulations of corporate labor rights protection responsibility.Finally,by learning from the existing rules,to propose the perfect path of corporate labor rights protection responsibility clause in BRICS’ investment treaties.The fourth part is “Research on the Responsibility of Consumer Rights Protection in Corporate Social Responsibility of BRICS’ Investment Treaties”.It expounds the necessity to require the enterprises to protect consumers rights in BRICS’ investment treaties,clarifies the basis of corporate consumer rights protection responsibility,and points out the shortcomings of the regulation of corporate consumer rights protection responsibility in BRICS’ investment treaties by analyzing the regulations of corporate consumer rights protection responsibility.Finally,by learning from the existing rules,to propose the perfect path of corporate consumer rights protection responsibility clause in BRICS’ investment treaties.The fifth part is “Research on Anti-corruption Responsibility in Corporate Social Responsibility of BRICS Investment Treaties”.It expounds the necessity to require the enterprises to anti-corrupt in BRICS’ investment treaties,clarifies the basis of corporate anti-corruption responsibility,and points out the shortcomings of the regulation of corporate anti-corruption responsibility in BRICS’ investment treaties by analyzing the regulations of anti-corruption responsibility.Finally,by learning from the existing rules,to propose the perfect path of corporate anti-corruption responsibility clause in BRICS’ investment treaties.The sixth part is "Unified Construction of Corporate Social Responsibility Clauses in the BRICS Investment Treaties".It studies the necessity and feasibility of constructing corporate social responsibility clauses in BRICS’ investment treaties,introduces the basic concepts that should be followed in constructing this clause,propose possible construction model to construct the corporate social responsibility,and put forward specific ideas for the construction of the relevant provisions.The main conclusions of this dissertation: In view of the dilemma of multinational corporations in practice and the necessity of countries to safeguard their own public interests,BRICS shall construct corporate social responsibility clauses in both form and content.First,BRICS can adopt the comprehensive stipulation model or the subsidiary agreement model to incorporate the articles into the investment treaties,embody the CSR clauses in the preamble,the text and the exception clauses,and pay attention to the comprehensiveness of the form.Secondly,BRICS may learn from the international community’s conventions or agreements on environment,labor,consumers and anti-corruption to improve the existing provisions and increase the corresponding responsibility and dispute resolution mechanisms according to the particularity of the main body of the articles.Besides,BRICS can engage in effective corporate behavior in the three dimensions of pre-,in-,and post-event and regulate social responsibility of multinational corporations.