What are the distinctions between corporate social responsibility, business responsibility and philanthropy, and how can a framework be devised to help businesses define their role in human rights accountability? These are just some the questions that will be tackled today in a lecture by Professor Tom Campbell, director of Australia’s Centre for Applied Philosophy & Public Ethics.

The talk will be held from 1:30 to 3pm in 305 York Lanes Offices, Keele campus.

Campbell will argue that the structure of a traditional corporate “business case” should be supplemented by a human rights justification which permits – and may require – a corporation to act independently of its economic interests when this is necessary to fulfill its human rights responsibilities.

Right: Tom Campbell

Campbell, a law and philosophy professor whose fields of interest include justice and human rights, business ethics and the legal theory of ethical positivism, is also the author of eight books on law and ethics: Adam Smith's Science of Morals (Allen & Unwin, 1971); Seven Theories of Human Society (Oxford University Press, 1981); The Left and Rights: A Conceptual Analysis of the Idea of Socialist Rights (Routledge, 1983); Mental Illness: Prejudice, Discrimination and the Law (Dartmouth, 1991); The Legal Theory of Ethical Positivism (Dartmouth, 1996); Prescriptive Legal Positivism (UCL Press/Cavendish, 2004); Rights: A Critical Introduction (Routledge, 2006); and Justice (Palgrave, 2010).

This event is sponsored by the Centre of Excellence in Responsible Business, Schulich School of Business, The Hennick Centre for Business and Law, the Canadian Business Ethics Research Network (CBERN) and the Ontario Legal Philosophy Partnership.

Visit the CBERN website to RSVP, or for more information contact Hilary Martin, CBERN’s research and outreach coordinator, at hmartin@cbern.ca.

Republished courtesy of YFile – York University’s daily e-bulletin.