It’s Friday and time for another overview of developments in the field of business and human rights that we’ve been monitoring.
This week’s post includes: new insights into the proposed Australia Modern Slavery Act; a new Withhold Release Order prohibiting the import of products produced with Turkmenistan cotton; and the launch of the Investor Alliance for Human Rights.
The protection of a company’s investments abroad could soon be linked to that company’s compliance with its CSR obligations. This is what the new Dutch draft model bilateral investment treaty (BIT) heralds. If other countries adopt the Netherlands’ approach, then international arbitration tribunals hearing claims that investors bring against foreign governments may also scrutinize the investors’ CSR track record.
CSR obligations are most relevant to the compensation a tribunal can award the investor.… More
This post, written by Seth Jaffe, a Partner in firm’s Environmental practice, was originally posted on the firm’s Law and the Environment blog.
BlackRock, which manages more than $5 trillion in assets, has released a statement on how it “engages with climate risk.” The statement has three main elements. 
It’s Friday and time for another overview of developments in the field of business and human rights that we’ve been monitoring.
This week’s post includes: the first reports published pursuant to the requirements of the U.K. Modern Slavery Act; an overview of social and environmental shareholder proposals filed for the 2016 proxy season; and a new effort to benchmark technology companies on their policies and practices with regard to forced labor in their supply chains.… More
The Principles for Responsible Investment (“PRI”) recently published a report, Addressing ESG Factors Under ERISA, that sets forth two legal perspectives on the ability of fiduciaries to consider environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) factors in their investment decision-making.
The report builds upon an interpretative bulletin released by the U.S. Department of Labor in October 2015. The bulletin, previously discussed here,… More
This post, written by Teresa Martland, Mark Barnett, and Jeff Collins, was originally published as a client alert.
New guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) clarifies the role of environmental, social and governance issues (referred to as “ESG factors”) in investment decisions by ERISA fiduciaries. ERISA Interpretive Bulletin 2015-01 recognizes that ESG factors,… More
On November 4th, the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) released a set of 34 sustainability measures that include environmental, social and governance indicators. WFE recommends that its member exchanges implement these indicators into the disclosure requirements for listed companies.
The WFE is an industry trade organization made up of 99 organizational members, including 64 regulated exchanges (such as NASDAQ and NYSE) across the globe.… More
Civilian application of drone technology has increased dramatically in recent years. The burgeoning civilian opportunities are a potential boon for investors, who view this emerging market as one that will expand long into the future, notwithstanding current and pending regulation of the industry. VCs are eager to get in on a piece of the action.
Notably, drones have historically been used primarily by the military,… More
Burma’s Hluttaw, or Parliament, passed a new Foreign Direct Investment Law on September 7. Few details on the legislation are yet available, and we have seen only partial translations, although the final version reportedly is preferable to its draft predecessor. President Thein Sein has not yet signed it into law.
From the information available thus far, it is clear, however, that the law is a significant improvement on the version that the lower Hluttaw passed earlier this summer,… More
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Following the success of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (“NLD”) party at the polls and today’s announcement that the United States will soon lift some of its sanctions against Burma, companies are closely scrutinizing the possibility of conducting business in the long-isolated country.
Recent events should not, however, be considered a green light to conduct business in Burma for at least two reasons: … More