► Full Reference: P. Deumier, « Chartes et codes de conduite des entreprises : les degrés de normativité des engagements éthiques » (Corporate Charters and Codes of Conduct: The Degrees of Normativity of Ethical Commitments), Revue trimestrielle de droit civil (RTD civ.), 2009, pp. 77-80.
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► Summary: the author starts from the circular of the French Directorate General for Labour of 19 November 2008 on ethical charters, whistleblowing schemes and internal rules. She shows that, behind ethical titles and an appearance of soft law, corporate codes of conduct mix statements of values with rules of conduct, and proposes to analyse them according to their normative content: codes that commit to nothing; codes that commit to nothing more than what the law already requires – which nevertheless spread knowledge of the law close to those concerned and may turn the company into a private legislator towards its suppliers and subcontractors; and codes that express a genuine normative power, subject to review by the courts. She concludes that the freedom to make ethical commitments does not allow a company to display commitments it does not keep.
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🦉 The article is available in full text to those registered in Professor Marie-Anne Frison-Roche’s courses.