Confrontations of information between business corporations and civil society: legal activism in question.

Abstract

Corporations are often the target of ethical criticisms from civil society, giving rise to genuine destabilisation campaigns. The militants behind these campaigns use information as a weapon to denounce situations they consider revolting: boycotts and press campaigns are launched, company directors heckled in public, etc. All large corporations have been the target of such campaigns at one time or another. In recent times, however, these criticisms made hitherto essentially through the media have been expressed differently. NGOs have brought actions against corporations, and proceedings have been started, sometimes on very serious grounds such as “crimes against humanity”. This legal activism might appear to be an end in itself: to have the corporation punished by the public authorities and not by civil society, by accusing it in public. This article demonstrates that the question is actually more complex and that this legal action is part of a system of information pressure endowing the militant campaign with apparent legitimacy, motivating the network of civil society organisations and giving material form to a virtual conflict. Key words: Ethics, Informational conflict.