Washington and Lee Law Review Volume 74 | Issue 2 Article 16 4-1-2017 The hrS inking Scope of CSR in UK Corporate Law Andrew Johnston School of Law, University of Sheffield Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr Part of the Business Organizations Law Commons Recommended Citation Andrew Johnston, The Shrinking Scope of CSR in UK Corporate Law, 74 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1001 (2017), https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr/vol74/iss2/16 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Washington and Lee Law Review at Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington and Lee Law Review by an authorized editor of Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Shrinking Scope of CSR in UK Corporate Law Andrew Johnston* Table of Contents I. Introduction ................................................................... 1002 II. The Law Before 1948 ..................................................... 1007 III. The Company Law Reforms of 1948 .............................. 1013 IV. 1970s Industrial Democracy Reforms ........................... 1018 V. The 2006 Reforms .......................................................... 1028 VI. Conclusion: The Prospects for CSR ............................... 1036 Abstract Through a historical analysis of corporate law reforms in the United Kingdom (UK) during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, this paper traces the shrinking scope for corporations to take socially responsible decisions. It offers a detailed examination of the rationales and drivers of the reforms, and shows that, by focusing exclusively on the question of accountability of directors to shareholders, wider social concerns were “bracketed” after 1948, leading to a permanent state of “crisis,” which constantly threatens the legitimacy of the corporate law system.