Corporate Social Responsibility: A Comparative Study in Legal Perspectives

Abstract:

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is globally understood although not a legally binding requirement for companies to adhere to. That is not to say that legislative and regulatory factors are not at play, such as through tax reductions or carbon credits. The way in which CSR plays out in different countries can be vastly different or undertaken for various reasons. The CSR interplay between companies located in the United Kingdom and those located in UAE are reviewed in this research in order to determine whether Western CSR aligns to Middle Eastern CSR in everyday application. It can be seen that there are two basic reasons why companies undertake CSR; each reason has multiple avenues to it. The main reasons would be for energy efficiency and for social inclusion. Whereas companies in the United Kingdom can be seen to implement CSR on a legislative level in terms of trying to create energy efficiency, reduce carbon imprint and avail of optimal tax advantage status it can be seen the companies in UAE implement CSR procedures with the socio-economic social inclusion factor at its core, in order to provide for citizens who are unable to provide for themselves and in order to offer a level of subsidy to all citizens in relation to fulfilling their basic needs of food, housing and education.