Online registration for this event is now closed. Walk-in registrations may be accepted.

A decade ago, corporate social responsibility (CSR) was a trendy idea promoted by quirky entrepreneurial companies like Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. Now more than 50 percent of the Global 250 corporations issue corporate responsibility reports, and the public expects visible CSR initiatives from businesses of all sizes. Many companies use CSR as a way to burnish their image, generate brand equity, and increase employee loyalty. Corporate critics and "socially responsible investors" have developed CSR measures to promote wide-ranging policies, including labor rights and curbs on global warming.

But is CSR really a win-win situation—as its promoters claim—for both corporations and the public? Corporate leaders struggle with determining to whom their social responsibilities extend: to shareholders, employees, local communities, the environment, humanity as a whole, future generations?

This conference, organized by NGO Watch—a project sponsored by AEI and the Federalist Society— will examine the complex global CSR phenomenon and take an in-depth look at Wal-Mart, which has been under fire for some of its corporate, social, and environmental practices. It will also draw upon the views of a wide range of CSR advocates and critics from academia, the corporate and public relations worlds, and the media.