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: Law at the End of the Day

Developing a Coherent Transnational Jurisprudence of Ethical Investing: The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund Ethics Council Model Part XXVII

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This Blog Essay site devotes every February to a series of integrated but short essays on a single theme. The Ruminations Series in 2009 produced a series of aphoristic (?????????) essays, meant to provoke thought rather than explain it. The hope was that, built up on each other, the series would provide a matrix of thoughts that together might lead the reader in new directions. Ruminations continue to be produced form time to time. For 2010, this site introduced a new series--Business and Human Rights. The series took as its starting point the issues and questions raised by John Ruggie, the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) on business and human rights, in a global online forum.

For 2011, this site introduces a new series of integrated essays--Developing a Coherent Transnational Jurisprudence of Ethical Investing: The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund Ethics Council Model. The object of this series to to consider the work of the Ethics Council of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund. The thesis of this series is this: The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund (NSWF ) investment program is grounded in the application of a set of Ethical Guidelines adopted by the Storting (the Norwegian Legislature) and enforced through an Ethics Council charged with determining whether a company should be excluded from investment by the NSWF. The work of the Ethics Council has produced the beginnings of a coherent jurisprudence of ethics for corporate investment. That jurisprudence may contribute significantly both to the development of transnational social norm standards and affect the way domestic corporate law is understood. This is Part II of the series.

From The Conscious Shift in Consumer Behaviors, LOHAS. So what brands do New Affluents find meaningful, authentic and relevant? Apple, Sony, BMW and Ralph Lauren, unsurprisingly. But Crate & Barrel, Ikea, Whole Foods and Levi's, too. Porsche, Lexus, Chanel and Viking. And Target, North Face, Volkswagen and The Gap. Missing from this segment's 75 favorites list are classic luxury brands like Cadillac, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Armani and Versace who have yet to demonstrate how they are keeping up with emerging trends.COnsumer Behavior ("So what brands do New Affluents find meaningful, authentic and relevant? Apple, Sony, BMW and Ralph Lauren, unsurprisingly. But Crate & Barrel, Ikea, Whole Foods and Levi's, too. Porsche, Lexus, Chanel and Viking. And Target, North Face, Volkswagen and The Gap. Missing from this segment's 75 favorites list are classic luxury brands like Cadillac, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Armani and Versace who have yet to demonstrate how they are keeping up with emerging trends.")

Part XXVII: Ethics and a Jurisprudence of Responsible Investment: The Ethics Guidelines as Quasi-Judicial System--

We have been considering the system that is the administration of the Ethics Guidelines. We have posited that the Ethics Guidelines system is an essential element of the Norwegian state's efforts to construct what will eventually serve as an international standard for responsible investment. We have come to understand responsible investment as a three pronged program consisting of: (1) a political-regulatory element derived from the Norwegian state apparatus (Storting and Ministry); (2) an economic-private element derived from the position of the Norwegian state as a shareholder-investor in publicly traded companies; and (3) a quasi-judicial element derived form the Ethics Guidelines and implemented through the Ethics Council. Together the three prongs apply national and international law in the public sphere and the private markets, and in the process seek to contribute the the development of the international law they develop and seek to domesticate that international (and national) law and regulatory framework into the operations of corporations (and the regulatory programs of corporate home states) through shareholder action.

The Ethics Council plays a critical role in that process, standing between the state and the private sector. It transforms politics into a set of predictable standards of conduct that are then applied on a case by case basis, to the investment universe of the NSWF.

This short essay considers the limits of the Ethics Council's system in the context of the responsible investment construct. The suggestion here is that, while the Ethics Council system provides a respectable foundation for its operation, there are a number of areas in which the Ethics Council can

Stay tuned for complete version, arrives on the 28th.

Full post as published by Law at the End of the Day on February 27, 2011 (boomark / email).