­The International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility is holding­ its sixth annual symposium on Friday 7th November 2008 with the theme: "Spheres of Influence/Spheres of Responsibility: Multinational Corporations and Human Rights".

In his third report as Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises, Professor John Ruggie has argued that:

• States' have a duty to protect human rights
  
• Corporations' have a responsibility to respect human rights;
  
• States' have a duty to ensure that when and if corporations fail to respect human rights, these failures be investigated, punished and redressed.
  

These arguments are of vital interest to business ethics and business and society scholars and practitioners. Ruggie's suggestions arguably represent a reassertion of a more traditional division of labour between business and government: A reassertion of the belief that businesses should predominantly be concerned with the production of goods and services (and obeying laws and more generally recognized moral precepts); whilst governments should be concerned with the establishment and enforcement of these "rules of the game".

Confirmed Keynotes & Contributors
Professor Robert McCorquodale - Director of the British Institute of International and Compartive Law. Chris Avery - Director, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre formerly Legal Adviser and Deputy Head of Research Department, Amnesty International
Professor Denis Arnold - Surtman Distinguished Scholar in Business Ethics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Additional Keynotes and contributors to be confirmed.

A more extensive outline of this event and registration form is now available to download from www.nottingham.ac.uk/business/iccsr