• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.179-198
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• 2017

The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (The Guidelines) was initially promulgated in 1976 as a form of annex to the OECD Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises. The Guidelines aims at accomplishing the implementation and dissemination of the Responsible Business Conduct. The latest version of The Guidelines, as revised in 2011, directed 47 adhering countries to The Guidelines to set up their respective National Contact Points (NCPs). NCPs are The Guidelines' dispute resolution mechanism for specific instances arising from breach by multinational enterprises of The Guidelines. Korea to date has its own NCP performing its role to offer good offices and facilitates settlement between the parties to the specific instances regarding The Guidelines. However, there has been strong criticism from NGOs and civil society that Korea NCP has not performed well due to lack of transparency and impartiality, especially in the context of the governance of Korea NCP. Under this circumstance, this paper ⅰ) examines current status and problems of Korea NCP, ⅱ) evaluates the core criteria for function and governance of NCPs through a comparative overseas cases study, and ⅲ) suggests improvement plans for Korea NCP.