Hastings Law Journal Volume 30 | Issue 5 Article 3 1-1979 Societal, Managerial, and Legal Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility--Product and Process Edwin M. Epstein Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_law_journal Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Edwin M. Epstein, Societal, Managerial, and Legal Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility--Product and Process, 30 Hastings L.J. 1287 (1979). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_law_journal/vol30/iss5/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings Law Journal by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Societal, Managerial, and Legal Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility-Product and Process* By EDWIN M. EPSTEIN** Introduction The present symposium is concerned with corporate social respon- sibility as it relates to the "structure and governance of the modern American corporation." This focus is wise; for the public policy debate about whether and how to increase the social responsiveness and public accountability of the contemporary large business corporation in the 1980's, will, most likely, revolve around the interconnected issues of corporate structure and corporate governance. The symposium's con- tributors will examine the prospects for enhancing corporate respon- siveness and accountability through both the internal restructuring of the corporate governance process and the development of innovative methods of external social control. My assignment, however, is some- what different. The editors of this Journal have asked me to provide an analytical overview and framework on the concept of social responsi- bility which might aid the reader to better consider the thrust of the symposium.