PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

Corporate responsibility (CR) principles aim to make today's corporations responsible members of thecommunity. Corporations in fulfilling their CR are anticipated to function within the framework of the lawsand regulations as part of the legal responsibility. Having a good law that upholds human rights has been seenas a vital tool in promoting and improving the public image of a corporation in the eyes of their customers. Inthe area of consumer protection and contract law, the Malaysian contract law has not been a great champion ofconsumer rights vis-à-vis suppliers and manufacturers. Standard form contracts have come to dominate morethan just routine transactions between suppliers and consumers. The increasing use of exemption clauses inconsumer standard form contracts has now become a predominant feature of many consumer contracts. Inview of increasing unethical conduct by manufacturers, consumer rights vis-à-vis manufacturers have alsobeen a cause for concern. The absence of a contractual relationship between manufacturers and consumershas to an extent provided a good defence for escaping liability for defective goods by the manufacturers. Theconsumer rights, being the rights of third parties, have never been acknowledged under the Malaysian law ofcontract. Adopting the content analysis method, this paper aims at exploring CR vis-à-vis consumers in threeselected areas of consumer and contract law, namely, the use of standard form contracts in consumer contracts,the exemption of liabilities for defective goods by traders and the rights of consumers against manufacturersunder the Malaysian contract and consumer law regime.