According to many economists' view, the global financial crisis is, paradoxically, the opportunity to do the important things one would otherwise avoid. Indeed, the European Commission showed in its renewed EU strategy 2011-14 for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that the economic crisis and its social consequences have damaged consumer confidence and trust in business. But, by promoting CSR now, one may create conditions favourable to sustainable growth, responsible business behaviour and the generation of durable employment in medium and long term.In line with this, the Commission defines CSR as "the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society". As the 2011 Communication of the Commission further underlines, CSR refers to companies voluntarily going beyond what the law requires, to achieve social and environmental objectives during the course of their daily business activities.It is the essentially voluntary character of CSR that may conjure problems, risen by the faking of this responsibility, by companies only interested in building themselves a "good image", thus transforming it into a mere gadget marketing strategy. This is also one of the reasons underlying the European initiative aimed at creating a legal framework to assure the effectiveness of the CSR, as a means of promoting the economic resilience of a corporation, that we shall comment in this study, after having first thoroughly analysed the CSR concept from the perspective of the law.
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