Postgraduate Course: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Law (LAWS11203)

Course Outline
School	School of Law	College	College of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate)	Availability	Not available to visiting students
SCQF Credits	20	ECTS Credits	10
Summary	Corporate social responsibility, once seen as just a matter of voluntary good practice, or indeed PR, has now become very much a legal issue. Company law has begun to adopt a wider framework than the traditional focus on directors duties to shareholders. International human rights law explicitly brought corporate responsibility into its domain. Private law is increasingly used to enforce what were once seen as voluntary or extra-legal commitments. The result is a widening of the legal concept of corporate responsibility and with it, both the legal accountability and the legal liability of business, nationally and internationally.
Course description	This course analyses the new approach to corporate social responsibility, tracing its origins and exploring pertinent current developments in, and new uses of, company law, contract, tort, international human rights, environment, international human rights, environment, intellectual property and European law. As this list demonstrates, the course is wide-ranging, though always focussed on the specific issue of corporate responsibility. It draws on legislation and cases from the UK, Europe, further jurisdictions and international law, sets analysis of legal developments in a wider context of social and economic analysis and explores case studies on themes such as human rights and environmental issues in the oil industry and the banking crisis.

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites		Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None

Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered

Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to: Understand the contemporary issues concerning corporate social responsibility; critically analyse the meaning of corporate social responsibility and its relation to the law; Critically analsye the role of corporate law, environmental law, human rights law, trust law and other legal areas studied in promoting corporate social responsibility in the UK and a number of other jurisdictions Demonstrate developed skills of reading and critical analysis; demonstrate developed written and oral skills, including the clear and succint expression of ideas.