Corporate social responsibility of business is becoming an increasingly relevant subject of research  in political science, sociology, economics and law. The social responsibility of business is becoming  the object of close attention of both governmental and nongovernmental organizations, and the  priority of its development is provided at the national, supranational and international levels. This  article considers the political and legal dimensions of the model of corporate social responsibility  implemented through the Global Compact as an unprecedented private initiative of the United  Nations. A study of the social consequences of the Global Compact offers the opportunity to  observe the development of an extremely important initiative: the dissemination of practices and  models of corporate social responsibility and the possible implications of this action for society, for  business and for the United Nations itself. Corporate social responsibility, having an internal and  external dimension, social and political content, goes far beyond the formal legal aspect. At the  same time, states, including the BRICS countries, interested in developing corporate social  responsibility practices, by legal means, in one way or another contribute to the development of  the most promising practices of the social responsibility of business from their point of view. The  United Nations pays special attention to the private sector as a promising tool for responding to new problems arising within the international environment. The principles formulated by the United Nations in the Global Compact are reflected and developed in the documents of other international  organizations, and then in the programs and regulatory documents of the participating countries,  and, of course, in the various codes of large and medium-sized corporations.