Corporate Environmental Compliance in China: From Social Responsibility to Soft Law

The environmental compliance of Chinese corporations is promoted in two main dimensions. On the one hand, based on external pressure from the legal system surrounding national environmental protection, corporations need to adjust their production and operations to comply with environmental law requirements. On the other hand, environmental compliance is based on the consensus of the whole society in regards to environmental protection. The members of corporations, due to their awakening to the idea of environmental protection, independently achieve the goal of environmental protection through ecological operation. The latter is mainly developed from the perspective of corporate social responsibility. However, environmental protection compliance based on corporate social responsibility faces problems, such as conflicts between multiple values, the misalignment of compliance subjects, and the lack of binding force. In fact, the perception, participation, and implementation of environmental protections by employees, communities, and other stakeholders has a significant impact on corporate environmental compliance. Soft law can bring together corporate employees and other stakeholders for the ethical consensus on environmental protection and achieve the purpose of environmental compliance.