ABSTRACT
From the early 2000s onwards, a vast body of literature has been published in international economic law on the merits, limitations, and possible linkages of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with general international law and trade and investment in particular. In April 2016, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) published a landmark research paper on CSR in international trade and investment agreements and the implications for states, businesses, and workers. Following the classic tripartite approach of the organisation, the ILO interrogated the progressive “legalisation” of CSR in government policies yet, at the same time, the vagueness of CSR treaty-related provisions. A human rights-based approach to international treaty negotiation and dispute settlement has to be definitively adopted for it is the only perspective, which is inclusive and sustainable as it rests upon the shared inalienable and indivisible rights of all and for all.
