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Raise the topic of due diligence in a room of corporate lawyers and you might expect the conversation to turn to a discussion of mergers and acquisitions or environmental site assessments. Increasingly, however, corporate counsel are being asked to help clients develop due diligence strategies and systems to identify the human rights concerns that may be associated with their existing, or potential, operations.
Corporate stakeholders, including both legislators and shareholders,… More
The new Good Practice Guide – Indigenous Peoples and Mining released by the International Council on Mining & Metals (“ICMM”) should prove informative to a wide variety of stakeholders concerned the impacts of corporate activities on indigenous communities. The topics covered by the guide include: engagement and consultation; impact assessments and baseline studies; negotiated agreements; benefit sharing; and grievance mechanisms.
ICMM produced the guide for companies in the mining industry,… More
On October 4, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") granted a stay of the new proxy access rules that are intended to allow certain shareholders to: (1) nominate directors and have those nominations included in corporate proxy materials; and (2) propose amendments to corporate procedural requirements for shareholder director nominations. The proxy access rules, adopted in August, had been scheduled to go into effect on November 15, 2010. A request for a stay was filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable after these organizations sought judicial review of the rules before the D.C.… More
Earlier today, the United States Supreme Court issued an order (.pdf) declining to grant a writ of certiorari in response to plaintiffs’ petition, and defendant’s conditional cross-petition, seeking review of the Second Circuit’s decision in Presbyterian Church of Sudan v. Talisman Energy, Inc., 582 F.3d 244 (2nd Cir. 2009). The Second Circuit upheld a lower court decision dismissing the case, which involved allegations that Talisman Energy aided and abetted the Sudanese Government in committing human rights abuses in Southern Sudan. … More
On September 30, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed The California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010 into law. The legislation will require companies to disclose their efforts to ensure that their supply chains are free from slavery and human trafficking.
The legislation will go into effect on January 1, 2012 and applies to retail sellers and manufacturers doing business in California that have annual gross receipts exceeding one hundred million dollars.… More