Law Commons^™

How Much Do Investors Care About Social Responsibility?, Scott Hirst, Kobi Kastiel, Tamar Kricheli-Katz

Faculty Scholarship

Perhaps the most important corporate law debate over the last several years concerns whether directors and executives should manage the corporation to maximize value for investors or also take into account the interests of other stakeholders and society. But, do investors themselves wish to maximize returns, or are they willing to forgo returns for social purposes? And more broadly, do market participants, such as investors and consumers, differ from donors in the ways in which they prioritize monetary gains and the promotion of social goals?

This project attempts to answer these questions with evidence from an experiment conducted with 279 …

Comment On Proposed Regulation: Prudence And Loyalty In Selecting Plan Investments And Exercising Shareholder Rights, David H. Webber

Shorter Faculty Works

In my view, while it is a significant improvement over its predecessor, the proposed rule’s persistent relegation of job creation/preservation to the status of mere “collateral benefit” is a mistake and undermines ERISA’s duty of loyalty. In reality, job creation and preservation are inextricably linked to fund financial health. Relegating that fact to a mere collateral benefit means trustees fail to consider the effect on a pension of investing in projects that eliminate the jobs of the fund’s own participants, or ignore the benefit of creating new jobs and thereby new pension contributors. This runs counter to President Biden’s executive …

The “Value” Of A Public Benefit Corporation, Jill E. Fisch, Steven Davidoff Solomon

All Faculty Scholarship

We examine the “value” a PBC form provides for publicly-traded corporations. We analyze the structure of the PBC form and find that other than requiring a designated social purpose it does not differ significantly in siting control and direction with shareholders. We also examine the purpose statements in the charters of the most economically significant PBCs. We find that, independent of structural limitations on accountability, these purpose statements are, in most cases, too vague and aspirational to be legally significant, or even to serve as a reliable checks on PBC behavior. We theorize, and provide evidence, that without a legal …

A Medical Doctor’S Abstinence From Care Giving In Islamic Jurisprudence (Shari'a) And Common Law

UAEU Law Journal

This paper addresses the following: First, it defines the term “Medicine”, its virtues and wisdom on the basis that care giving (treatment) is not the duty of every Muslim. Second, the study states that freedom of action is the foundation of care giving in the medical profession. Nonetheless, the study goes on to point out that doctors are under solemn duty to provide care, and this is governed by such principles as Islamic jurisprudence (Shari'a) and social responsibility. Third, the issue of whether or not to provide care giving is a contemporary one. This has been addressed in relation to …

Investors As International Law Intermediaries: Using Shareholder Proposals To Enforce Human Rights, Kishanthi Parella

Scholarly Articles

One of the biggest challenges with international law remains its enforcement. This challenge grows when it comes to enforcing international law norms against corporations and other business organizations. The United Nations Guiding Principles recognizes the “corporate responsibility to respect human rights,” which includes human rights due diligence practices that are adequate for “assessing actual and potential human rights impacts, integrating and acting upon the findings, tracking responses, and communicating how impacts are addressed.” Unfortunately, many corporations around the world are failing to implement adequate human rights due diligence practices in their supply chains. This inattention leads to significant harms for …

Rethinking "Political" Considerations In Investment, David H. Webber

Faculty Scholarship

Five years ago, Professor David H. Webber was invited to deliver an address both to our Delaware Law School community and to the Delaware Bench and Bar as Visiting Scholar in Residence of Corporate and Business Law. Webber's Speech, "Rethinking 'Political' Considerations in Investment," made several predictions about the rise of politicized investment which were quite prescient. As relevant today as when it was delivered, this piece explores the consideration of investment factors outside the traditional realm of shareholder profit maximization, both in its current state and in the future. Webber's analysis of how investors balance the role of capital …

Should Corporations Have A Purpose?, Jill E. Fisch, Steven Davidoff Solomon

All Faculty Scholarship

Corporate purpose is the hot topic in corporate governance. Critics are calling for corporations to shift their purpose away from shareholder value as a means of addressing climate change, equity and inclusion, and other social values. We argue that this debate has overlooked the critical predicate questions of whether a corporation should have a purpose at all and, if so, what role it serves.

We start by exploring and rejecting historical, doctrinal, and theoretical bases for corporate purpose. We challenge the premise that purpose can serve a useful function either as a legal constraint on managerial discretion or as a …

Looking Back With A Legend: Ira Millstein Reflects On The Impact Of Milton Friedman's Views On Corporate Governance, Eric L. Talley, Ira M. Millstein, Leo E. Strine Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

In this discussion, corporate governance legend and frequent The Business Lawyer contributor Ira M. Millstein reflects on the impact of Milton Friedman and his adherents on our corporate governance system and economy generally, as well as the path forward to an economy that functions better for the many. Millstein takes an historical perspective in conversation with former Chief Justice and Chancellor of Delaware, Leo E. Strine, Jr., moderated by Professor Eric Talley of Columbia Law School. Millstein situates the evolution of our corporate governance system, including the effect of Friedman and the Chicago school on it, within the political dynamics …

The Effect Of Green Announcements On Stock Returns Of New Zealand Listed Companies, David K. Ding

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of corporate green announcements on the stock performance of listed companies in New Zealand. We find that the market has a positive, though not significant, reaction to the announcements. New Zealand companies are largely viewed to be already quite green at the onset and the market is not very much surprised by such announcements but expect them to continue being green. Our results are consistent with the view that to be green is costly, especially so in a developed economy where the cost of doing business is high. Our findings …

L’Enjeu De L’Écriture Dans Mer Méditerranée De Louis-Philippe Dalembert: Dénonciation Ou Mise En Garde?, Nadia N. Iskandarani

BAU Journal - Society, Culture and Human Behavior

Louis-Philippe Dalembert, a Mauritian writer, published in 2019 his novel Mur Méditerranée that sheds the light on an actual issue: the migration crisis. To write this novel, the author was inspired by a real event that occurred in July 2014: the rescue story of illegal migrants by the Danish oil tanker Torm Lotte. In his novel, Louis-Philippe Dalembert portrays three women: Sembar Eritrean, Chochana the Nigerian, and Dima the Syrian; each of them flees the violence that rages in her country and throws herself into a ship that crosses the Mediterranean and leads migrants to Europe. Dalembert, deeply touched by …

Social Responsibility In Advertising: Extending Protections For Children In California’S Modeling Industry, Jordyn Sifferman

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Fiduciary Blind Spot: The Failure Of Institutional Investors To Prevent The Illegitimate Use Of Working Americans' Savings For Corporate Political Spending, Leo E. Strine Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

For decades, American workers have been subjected to increasing pressure to become forced capitalists, in the sense that to provide for retirement for themselves, and to pay for college for their children, they must turn part of their income every month over to mutual funds who participate in 401(k) and 529 programs. These “Worker Investors” save for the long term, often hold portfolios that are a proxy for the entire economy, and depend on the economy’s ability to generate good jobs and sustainable growth in order for them to be able to have economic security. In recent years, there has …

A Framework On Mandating Versus Incentivizing Corporate Social Responsibility, Margaret Ryznar, Karen E. Woody

Karen Woody

There are two primary but different methods of controlling behavior, whether it is the behavior of individuals or corporations: to incentivize it or to regulate it. Governments are in a unique position to employ either or both options because of their ability to pass regulatory schemes and to extend tax incentives. This Article analyzes the two methods of shaping corporate behavior, examining the regulation issue through the case of the conflict minerals provision of the Dodd–Frank Act and examining the taxation issue through several examples of corporate tax incentives.

Takings, Efficiency, And Distributive Justice: A Response To Professor Dagan, Glynn S. Lunney Jr.

Glynn Lunney

In A Critical Reexamination of the Takings Jurisprudence, I addressed an efficiency problem that arises when the government attempts to change property rights in a manner that burdens a very few for the benefit of the very many. Specifically, in the absence of compensation, the collective action advantage of the few in organizing to oppose the proposed measure will often give them a decided edge against the many. As a result of that advantage, the few will too often be able to persuade the legislature not to act, even when an objective evaluation of the proposal's costs and benefits would …

Tech, Regulatory Arbitrage, And Limits, Elizabeth Pollman

All Faculty Scholarship

Regulatory arbitrage refers to structuring activity to take advantage of gaps or differences in regulations or laws. Examples include Facebook modifying its terms and conditions to reduce the exposure of its user data to strict European privacy laws, and Uber and other platform companies organizing their affairs to categorize workers as non-employees. This essay explores the constraints and limits on regulatory arbitrage through the lens of the technology industry, known for its adaptiveness and access to strategic resources. Specifically, the essay explores social license and the bundling of laws and resources as constraining forces on regulatory arbitrage, and the legal …

Vicarious Charity: Social Responsibility And Catholic Social Teaching, Paula Dalley

Journal of Catholic Legal Studies

(Excerpt)

This Article begins with a brief introduction to the CSR debate. Part II describes the legal role of various human actors in the corporation, and Part III describes the legal restrictions on those actors’ socially responsible, but unauthorized, decisions. Part IV describes in some detail the relevant social teaching of the Catholic Church and explains that it does not apply to corporations or other corporate actors. Part V then describes the appropriate application of Catholic social doctrine to economic actors.

The Role And Future Of Sovereign Wealth Funds: A Trade And Investment Perspective, Locknie Hsu

Locknie HSU

Sovereign wealth funds ("SWFs") have been greeted with bothenthusiasm and suspicion. In one respect, they have been called "white knights," where they step in to inject financing to troubledentities.' In others, they have been called "Trojan horses" and"chameleons."

Fostering Client Altruism And The Common Good In The Practice Of Law: Learning From Emerging Movements In Business And Economics, Ann Juergens, Diane Galatowitsch

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Role And Future Of Sovereign Wealth Funds: A Trade And Investment Perspective, Locknie Hsu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Sovereign wealth funds ("SWFs") have been greeted with bothenthusiasm and suspicion. In one respect, they have been called "white knights," where they step in to inject financing to troubledentities.' In others, they have been called "Trojan horses" and"chameleons."

Who Bleeds When The Wolves Bite? A Flesh-And-Blood Perspective On Hedge Fund Activism And Our Strange Corporate Governance System, Leo E. Strine Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

This paper examines the effects of hedge fund activism and so-called wolf pack activity on the ordinary human beings—the human investors—who fund our capital markets but who, as indirect of owners of corporate equity, have only limited direct power to ensure that the capital they contribute is deployed to serve their welfare and in turn the broader social good.

Most human investors in fact depend much more on their labor than on their equity for their wealth and therefore care deeply about whether our corporate governance system creates incentives for corporations to create and sustain jobs for them. And because …

Corporate Power Is Corporate Purpose Ii: An Encouragement For Future Consideration From Professors Johnson And Millon, Leo E. Strine Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

This paper is the second in a series considering the argument that corporate laws that give only rights to stockholders somehow implicitly empower directors to regard other constituencies as equal ends in governance. This piece was written as part of a symposium honoring the outstanding work of Professors Lyman Johnson and David Millon, and it seeks to encourage Professors Johnson and Millon, as proponents of the view that corporations have no duty to make stockholder welfare the end of corporate law, to focus on the reality that corporate power translates into corporate purpose.

Drawing on examples of controlled companies that …

The Separation Of Corporate Law And Social Welfare, William W. Bratton

All Faculty Scholarship

A half century ago, corporate legal theory pursued an institutional vision in which corporations and the law that creates them protect people from the ravages of volatile free markets. That vision was challenged on the ground during the 1980s, when corporate legal institutions and market forces came to blows over questions concerning hostile takeovers. By 1990, it seemed like the institutions had won. But a different picture has emerged as the years have gone by. It is now clear that the market side really won the battle of the 1980s, succeeding in entering a wedge between corporate law and social …

Corporate Power Is Corporate Purpose I: Evidence From My Hometown, Leo E. Strine Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

This paper is the first in a series considering a rather tired argument in corporate governance circles, that corporate laws that give only rights to stockholders somehow implicitly empower directors to regard other constituencies as equal ends in governance. By continuing to suggest that corporate boards themselves are empowered to treat the best interests of other corporate constituencies as ends in themselves, no less important than stockholders, scholars and commentators obscure the need for legal protections for other constituencies and for other legal reforms that give these constituencies the means to more effectively protect themselves.

Using recent events in the …

Using Proactive Legal Strategies For Corporate Environmental Sustainability, Gerlinde Berger-Walliser, Paul Shrivastava, Adam Sulkowski

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

We argue that proactive law can help organizations be more sustainable. Toward that end, this Article first summarizes proactive law literature as it pertains to corporate sustainability. Next, it examines a series of cases on the pivotal nexus between proactive law and corporate sustainability. It then advances novel propositions that connect proactive law to central organizational design elements. The discussion traces further implications and suggests fruitful avenues for research and ways of using proactive law for firms to become more sustainable.

The Social Boundaries Of Corporate Taxation, Sloan G. Speck

Publications

Historically, the tax law distinction between corporate and conduit treatment drew primarily on doctrinal understandings, treating state-law corporations as corporate for tax purposes and classifying unincorporated legal entities based on their resemblance to conventional state-law corporations. More recently, commentators and Treasury have abandoned these doctrinal touchstones in favor of efficiency, broadly construed, as the guiding principle in determining an entity’s tax classification. This Article argues that, while important, efficiency considerations should not function as the sole arbiter of the boundary between corporate and conduit tax treatment. First, classical corporate taxation is, in many ways, deeply embedded within a larger network …

The Corporation’S Place In Society, Gabriel Rauterberg

Michigan Law Review

The vast majority of economic activity is now organized through corporations. The public corporation is usurping the state’s role as the most important institution of wealthy capitalist societies. Across the developed world, there is increasing convergence on the shareholder-owned corporation as the primary vehicle for creating wealth. Yet nothing like this degree of convergence has occurred in answering the fundamental questions of corporate capitalism: What role do corporations serve? What is the goal of corporate law? What should corporate managers do? Discussion of these questions is as old as the institutions involved.

Private Long-Term Care Insurance: Not The Solution To The High Cost Of Long-Term Care For The Elderly, Lawrence A. Frolik

Articles

Long-term care can be extremely expensive. As older Americans plan for financing care for their golden years, one option is to purchase a Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) policy. However, despite the potentially steep costs of long-term care, few elderly individuals actually purchase LTCI. This decision is rational for most elderly people. First, LTCI insures a risk that may never occur, as the majority of elderly Americans only need a year or less of long-term care. Second, Medicaid provides a publicly subsidized alternative to LTCI. An elderly person can rely on his or her savings to pay for care and then …

Benefit Corporations: Increased Oversight Through Creation Of The Benefit Corporation Commission, Thomas J. White Iii

Journal of Legislation

Traditional for-profit and nonprofit corporate forms do not provide the appropriate framework for an organization pursuing both profits and social responsibility. In response, state legislatures have begun to take initiative by offering new business forms to accommodate for an increased demand in social responsibility. These hybrid forms seek to offer an organization the optimal platform by which to meet their dynamic goals. This Note will analyze the recently popular hybrid form of a benefit corporation. Further, this Note will dissect the Model Benefit Corporation Legislation and explain how benefit corporations provide a solution to the theory of shareholder wealth maximization. …

Resolving The Conflict Between Fiduciary Duties And Socially Responsible Investing, William Sanders

Pace Law Review

Part I of this Article clarifies and strictly defines the frequently nebulous idea of socially responsible investing (“SRI”), explaining its history, trends, and current status. To give perspective and perhaps temper hype, Part II discusses the efficacy of SRI as a method of change, concluding that while SRI may not have much effect on air quality or oppressive foreign governments, there are situations where SRI is useful and even necessary. Part III looks at the conflict between SRI and the fiduciary duties of trustees, investment advisers, and broker-dealers. It shows the contractual nature of fiduciary duties and why this is …

A Framework On Mandating Versus Incentivizing Corporate Social Responsibility, Margaret Ryznar, Karen E. Woody

Marquette Law Review

There are two primary but different methods of controlling behavior, whether it is the behavior of individuals or corporations: to incentivize it or to regulate it. Governments are in a unique position to employ either or both options because of their ability to pass regulatory schemes and to extend tax incentives. This Article analyzes the two methods of shaping corporate behavior, examining the regulation issue through the case of the conflict minerals provision of the Dodd–Frank Act and examining the taxation issue through several examples of corporate tax incentives.