When corporate social responsibility meets human rights. Business planning based on moral absolutes

What happens when Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Human Rights meet? This article argues that although CSR is a worthy attempt to propose social-aimed better practices for managerial decisions, a human rights perspective substantially enriches this vision. It also suggests that the ancient principle of res extra commercium can provide the rationale crucial to join CSR with human rights as a source of moral absolutes. Essentially, based on the res extra commercium rationale, businesses should start by identifying areas of economic activity that are off limits because they may violate human dignity. ©2022 Ramon Llull Journal of Applied Ethics, Universitat Ramon Llull.