Time to Change Corporations: Closing the Citizenship Gap

JUST RELEASED Time to Change Corporations: Closing the Citizenship Gap By Robert C. Hinkley When good citizens realize they are harming the public interest, they stop. They don't wait for a new law to make them stop. They don't lobby to keep the law from making them stop. They simply stop. When citizenship is lacking, the behavior causing the harm continues until a law can be passed to make it stop. Sometimes this can take a very long time. Modern corporations tend not to be very good citizens. Rather than stop, they continue operating in the Citizenship Gap, harming the environment and other elements of the public interest. Time to Change Corporations reveals how existing law encourages companies to continue. The author, a corporate lawyer for more than 30 years, describes how this problem arose and suggests the solution lies in reversing a change to the corporate law made more than 100 years ago. This reversal will require directors to once again ensure their company's pursuit of self-interest no longer comes at the expense of the environment, human rights, the public health and safety, the dignity of employees and the welfare of the communities in which the corporation operates.

ABOUT ROBERT C. HINKLEY Robert C. Hinkley is the originator of the Code for Corporate Citizenship, a 28 word proposal to amend the corporate law that will balance the duty of directors to pursue profits with a duty to protect five elements of the public interest: the environment, human rights, the public health and safety, the dignity of employees and the welfare of the communities in which the company operates. With over thirty years’ experience as a securities lawyer, business manager and accountant, his experience includes advising senior management of clients from a wide range of industries including, airlines, banking, building products, brewing, building products, e-commerce, forest products, insurance, mining, petrochemicals, public utilities and telecommunications. Born in Sidney, N.Y. he spent many years in Sydney, NSW Australia advising Australian and New Zealand based clients as a partner in two of America’s largest law firms. He is a graduate of Fordham University’s College of Business Administration and Fordham’s School of Law. In addition to Time to Change Corporations, he has also written numerous articles on the subject of corporate citizenship that have appeared in, among others, the Australian Financial Review, The Australian, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Bangor Daily News and Business Ethics Magazine. In addition he has been the subject of interviews by, among others, The Sun Magazine, the Business Law Journal at the University of California - Davis Law School and the Corporate Crime Reporter.