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with the above-mentioned declarations. Corporate entities also rely on more established
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norms in international law, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the

ICCPR and the ICESCR.

I would consider the labour rights principles enshrined in those instruments as
labour-related CSR codes. They are referred to in the CSR activity of corporate entities,
to enunciate their will to achieve certain social goals. In other words, the Declaration

on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and the Tripartite Declaration on
Multinational Enterprises are not directly applied as law, but they perform a role of de

facto legal reference when used as objectives of an enterprise’s CSR activity. In short,
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the CSR activity acts as a catalyst to make the referenced instrument soft law. We can
perhaps consider CSR a “pre-soft law”. The labour-related CSR codes thus perform

soft law functions when they are referred to in CSR activities of enterprises.
As one can cut a bulky beefsteak with even a plastic knife when wielded carefully,

soft law can become almost hard law when necessary conditions are met. The German
constitutional lawyer Georg Jellinek maintained, as old as a century ago, that the
effectiveness of a legal rule loses its validity if nobody follows it. Conversely, if there
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are understandings which are followed by many people for many years, these
understandings tend to become legal rules.
12
There are many ways to make a soft instrument harder. CSR activities of
enterprises are one of them. The following section describes a way labour-related CSR

codes can be made harder by CSR activities of enterprises. In other words, we can
observe situations where ILS can be effectively applied without being ratified by the

country concerned and the relevant national laws enacted.

9 OECD Guidelines, ILO Tripartite Declaration and ILO26000 will be discussed in more detail below.
10 The Mitsubishi Corporation Code of Conduct provides guidance to its employees worldwide based
on local laws and global standards such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ILO Core Labor
Standards, Mitsubishi Corporation, https://www.mitsubishicorp.com/jp/en/csr/management/policy/human-right.
html (visited 2 August 2019).
11 Georg Jellinek, Allgemeine Staatslehre, (Häring Berlin 1905) 330-334.
12 Reference is made to the customary rule-making in international law. Jellinek, ibid 331.

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