16 May 2024
Over the last 400 years, corporations have grown from nothing to the most powerful influences in our daily lives. The side effects of their behaviour (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions and global warming) can sometimes be severely harmful. It needs to be considered whether the corporation itself now needs to be reformed to eliminate the most detrimental of these side effects and better serve the common good of all.
In all important respects, the duty of directors contained in the corporate law is the same in every jurisdiction where corporations are formed. It is motivating force which drives capitalism. Like any law it can be amended and improved. Modify it slightly and corporate behaviour can be greatly improved. It’s a lever of the kind Archimedes once spoke, a lever long enough to move the world.
The aim of the Code for Corporate Citizenship is to amend the duty of directors in the corporate laws of the world to give corporations a modicum of conscience and stop them from continuing to cause severe harm to the environment and other elements of the public interest.
It’s a reform which almost no one should oppose. In my next post I’ll discuss why there is a realistic chance of making it the law.
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