Reboot Dialogue #24

Taming Corporations to Relieve the Climate Emergency

More than 20 years ago, Bob Hinkley proposed a Code for Corporate Citizenship that would amend the existing duty of directors “to act in the best interests of the corporation” by adding the following words...

“but not at the expense of severe damage to the environment, human rights, public health and safety, dignity of employees or the welfare of the communities in which the corporation operates.”

In this Reboot Dialogue we focus on the role the law plays in both enabling and legitimising corporations to cause severe harm to the environment – and how the proposed Code for Corporate Citizenship would put an end to that.

Bob Hinkley is an American attorney, who specializes in corporate law generally and corporate financing specifically. From 2012 to 2020, he provided critical assistance to the US Department of Justice in connection with investigations that recovered more than $US 65 billion from more than a dozen banks for illegal behaviour that led to the financial crisis of 2008.

For more information about Bob Hinkley, please visit our contributors' page. This Reboot Dialogue is presented by Nico Andreas Heller.