In addition to their usual activities, companies today are often expected to set public interest goals. The term Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been developed for this purpose. Which means that, sometimes, companies pursue social and environmental goals with great publicity—this is particularly true whenever companies are responsible for or contribute to grievances. For the time being, a company is not accountable to anyone, and there is usually no legal basis for this. In his book, Jernej Letnar Černič claims that, often, only regional legislations bind the enterprises to socio-economic rights. However, the responsibility must be considered from a qualified normative point of view. A responsibility results from the corporate (and social) ethics, which are mostly derived from the customer base or from the corporate goals. Accordingly, companies should contribute to the moral concepts of the society in which they operate. Companies will benefit if, on the one hand, they keep unpopular practices out of the public eye to such an extent that they do not attract public attention and do not cause damage to their image and sales; and, on the other hand, if they themselves do not directly violate human rights, but integrate companies that violate human rights into their supply chains. It is thus possible for companies to avoid their apparent responsibility for the time being. However, these practices are by no means unknown. However, it is not yet possible to see through all structures and to punish human rights violations. For this reason, some activists and organizations are calling for greater transparency within the supply chains. This should not only be based on voluntary internal company audit processes, but also on regulations and requirements from national and international sides. Frequently, voluntarily imposed standards and obligations lead to unsatisfactory, inconsistent, or only superficial implementation. This was noted by Černič. He points out that voluntary obligations are often too vague and ambiguous. Therefore, he calls for more clarity on the responsibility of companies, especially with regard to protecting and fulfilling socio-economic rights. According to Černič this is an important part of justice for citizens. Overall, Černič connects the protection of human and socio-economic rights, to corporate responsibility and access to justice. He links important components for the overarching goal of safeguarding human rights and presenting their interrelationships and problems. This is relevant if we want to solve this problem systematically. The mere demand to uphold and protect human rights is often only symptomatic, whereas Černič's approach can be seen as cause-related on several levels. With approaches of this kind, it is possible to counteract the global supply chain structures and their now very large influence on our lives. One should not rely on the goodwill of companies in the long run. Therefore, an approach such as that described by Černič—combining voluntary and legal requirements—is a conceivably good solution.
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