Transnational corporations as agents of legal change: The role of corporate social responsibility

Abstract

This article draws on sociological studies of corporate social responsibility, new governance and legal transplant theories to reconsider the role of transnational corporations (TNCs) as regulators and agents of change in the field of human rights. The article demonstrates the potentials of transnational corporations as vehicles for the transplanting of human rights sensibilities in post-colonial settings through the use of corporate social responsibility practices. It does so by reconsidering the institutional role of transnational corporations, not as objects of international human rights regulation, but as actual regulators in this field.