Università Roma Tre

Since many years the debate on "Corporate Social Responsibility" (CSR) takes center stage for companies, institutions, consumers, labor unions, and NGOs, which consider corporations as pro-active agents for the creation and enhancement of the social welfare.
The course examines principles, models, and tools concerning business ethics, through a triple approach that integrates three different perspectives: economic, managerial and legal.
The course aims to promote among the students the awareness about ethical issues and the ability to recognize and adopt ethical behaviour in carrying out the managerial practices.
The course consists of three complementary modules: legal, economic and managerial. Each module provides 3 credits and constitutes a component of a single exam.

The aim of the first part – juridical – is to analyse the impact of CSR on the evolution of the sources of law and the relationship between the social and the juridical responsibility. In particular, it will deal with the following topics:
- Globalisation and the crisis of traditional law sources
- Multilevel regulation of CSR. Definition, principles and functions
- Main instruments of CSR: codes of conduct, standards
- Social rules and juridical relevance
- Complexity and alternative methods of government: soft law, self-regulation, co-regulation
- The principle of subsidiarity
- The role of ethics in the regulation of CSR
- CSR rules and enforcement. The role of legal system

The second module of the course deals with the organizational and managerial aspects related to the principles of Corporate Social Responsibility, with the aim to provide traditional and innovative tools to manage the ethical issues.
In particular, this module faces the following topics:
- The CSR evolution
- Stakeholder theory
- Stakeholder Dialogue
- AGENDA 2030 & 17 SDGs
- The CSR instruments
- Certification
- SA 8000 and Certification Process
- ISO 26000
- Social Accountability

The third module focuses on the relation between ethics, economics, and business, both in economic analysis and management. To do so, it makes three simple points. First, economics necessarily involves ethics, and economists and managers cannot engage in economic analysis and decision-making without making value judgments. Second, individuals have ethical values that shape their behavior and affect what happens in the economy as a result of their interactions. Third, ethical values are involved in evaluating how an economy is doing and in making and appraising business decisions.

Managerial Module: Standards: SA8000 and ISO 26000, students who do not speak Italian may contact Dott.ssa Di Pietro for English textbook

The course consists of three complementary modules: legal, economic and managerial. Each module provides 3 credits and constitutes a component of a single exam.
The aim of the first part – juridical – is to analyse the impact of CSR on the evolution of the sources of law, the techniques of its regulation and the relationship between the social and the juridical responsibility. In particular, it will deal with the following topics:
- Globalisation and the crisis of traditional law sources
- Multilevel regulation of CSR. Definition, principles and functions
- Main instruments of CSR: codes of conduct, standards
- Social rules and juridical relevance
- Complexity and alternative methods of government: soft law, self-regulation, co-regulation
- The principle of subsidiarity
- The role of ethics in the regulation of CSR
- CSR rules and enforcement. The role of legal system

Legale modul:
- E. Bellisario, La responsabilità sociale delle imprese fra autonomia e autorità privata, in Danno e responsabilità, 2013, pp. 809-822
- E. Bellisario, Rischi di sostenibilità e obblighi di disclosure: il d.lgs. n. 254/2016 di attuazione della dir. 2014/95/UE, in Le nuove leggi civili commentate, 2017, pp. 19-46
- E. Bellisario, Le “autorità private” nell’era della sostenibilità. Gli impatti dell’EGS Disclosure Regulation e del Taxonomy Regulation, in Actualidad Jurídica Iberoamericana, Numero Speciale, Estudios de derecho privado en homenaje al Profesor Cesare Massimo Bianca, 2022, pp. 104-123

To access the teaching material, it is necessary to enroll in Course AA23/24, on the Moodle platform