Charles John Sampford

Ethics and Socially Responsible Investment : A Philosophical Approach

This volume breaks new ground by approaching Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) as an explicitly ethical practice in financial markets. The work explains the philosophical and practical shortcomings of ‘long term shareholder value’ and the origins and conceptual structure of SRI, and links its pursuit to both its deeper philosophical foundations and the broader, multi-dimensional global movement towards greater social responsibility in global markets. Interviews with fund managers in the Australian SRI sector generate recommendations for better integrating ethics into SRI practice via ethically informed engagement with invested companies, and an in-depth discussion of the central practical SRI issue of fiduciary responsibility strengthens the case in favour of SRI. The practical and ethical theoretical perspectives are then brought together to sketch out an achievable ideal for SRI worldwide, in which those who are involved in investment and business decisions become part of an ‘ethical chain’ of decision makers linking the ultimate owners of capital with the business executives who frame, advocate and implement business strategies. In between there are investment advisors, fund managers, business analysts and boards. The problem lies in the fact that the ultimate owners are discouraged from considering their own values, or even their own long term interests, whilst the others often look only to short term interests. The solution lies in the latter recognising themselves as links in the ethical chain.

Shareholder values, not shareholder value : the role of 'ethical funds' and 'ethical entrepreneurs' in connecting shareholders' values with their investments

This article rebuts the still-common assumption that managers of capitalist entities have a duty, principally or even exclusively, to maximise the monetary return to investors on their investments. It argues that this view is based on a misleadingly simplistic conception of human values and motivation. Not only is acting solely to maximise long-term shareholder value difficult, it displays, at best, banal single-mindedness and, at worst, sociopathy. In fact, real investors and managers have rich constellations of values that should be taken account of in all their decisions, including their business decisions. Awareness of our values, and public expression of our commitment to exemplify them, make for healthier investment and, in the long term, a healthier corporate world. Individuals and funds investing on the basis of such values, in companies that express their own, display humanity rather than pathology.

What's a Lawyer Doing in a Nice Place Like This? Lawyers and Applied Ethics

Ethics now enjoys a place in the academic lawyers landscape that was scarcely conceivable 15 to 20 years ago. This article considers how the role of ethics in teaching, research and practice has grown and some of the intellectual fall out from that growth-in law, jurisprudence, legal practice, applied philosophy in general, and legal ethics in particular. The observations made are based primarily on the Australian legal academy, though it is unclear as to whether there is any fundamental difference between that and the British equivalent.

Conceptualizing Personal and Institutional Integrity: The Comprehensive Integrity Framework

Abstract In this paper, we present a conceptual and terminological system – what we term the ‘Comprehensive Integrity Framework’ – capable of applying to both personal and institutional integrity, and to different levels of institutions (including sub-institutions and institutional complexes). We distinguish between three sorts of integrity: consistency-integrity (whether the agent’s acts accord with her claimed values); coherence-integrity (whether the agent’s character and internal constitution accord with her claimed values); and context-integrity (whether the agent’s environment facilitates her living up to her claimed values). We then employ this conceptual system to explore similarities, differences and overlaps between personal and institutional integrity, drawing in particular on moral philosophic work on personal integrity (on the one hand) and on ‘integrity systems’ and public administration approaches to institutional integrity (on the other).

Integrity Reform in Developing Countries: Assessment of Georgia's Integrity System

National Integrity Systems have been developed to assist in governance reform. This article outlines the development of such an assessment, and describes a specific project—the National Integrity System of Georgia. Applying systems methodology and learning, especially within developing countries, may assist an integrity-driven approach toward improved public integrity and social responsibility.

The Constitutional Power to Make War: Domestic Legal Issues Raised by Australia's Action in Iraq

The legal power to declare war has traditionally been a part of a prerogative to be exercised solely on advice that passed from the King to the Governor-General no later than 1942. In 2003, the Governor- General was not involved in the decision by the Prime Minister and Cabinet to commit Australian troops to the invasion of Iraq. The authors explore the alternative legal means by which Australia can go to war — means the government in fact used in 2003 — and the constitutional basis of those means. While the prerogative power can be regulated and/or devolved by legislation, and just possibly by practice, there does not seem to be a sound legal basis to assert that the power has been devolved to any other person. It appears that in 2003 the Defence Minister used his legal powers under the Defence Act 1903 (Cth) (as amended in 1975) to give instructions to the service head(s). A powerful argument could be made that the relevant sections of the Defence Act were not intended to be used for the decision to go to war, and that such instructions are for peacetime or in bello decisions. If so, the power to make war remains within the prerogative to be exercised on advice. Interviews with the then Governor-General indicate that Prime Minister Howard had planned to take the matter to the Federal Executive Council ‘for noting’, but did not do so after the Governor-General sought the views of the then Attorney-General about relevant issues of international law. The exchange raises many issues, but those of interest concern the kinds of questions the Governor-General could and should ask about proposed international action and whether they in any way mirror the assurances that are uncontroversially required for domestic action. In 2003, the Governor-General’s scrutiny was the only independent scrutiny available because the legality of the decision to go to war was not a matter that could be determined in the High Court, and the federal government had taken action in March 2002 that effectively prevented the matter coming before the International Court of Justice.

From Deep North to International Governance Exemplar: Fitzgerald's Impact on the International Anti-Corruption Movement

In pre-Fitzgerald Queensland, the existence of corruption was widely known but its extent and modes of operation were not fully evident. The Fitzgerald Report identified the need for reform of the structure, procedures and efficiency in public administration in Queensland. What was most striking in the Queensland reform process was that a new model for combatting corruption had been developed. Rather than rely upon a single law and a single institution, existing institutions were strengthened and new institutions were introduced to create a set of mutually supporting and mutually checking institutions, agencies and laws that jointly sought to improve governmental standards and combat corruption. Some of the reforms were either unique to Queensland or very rare. One of the strengths of this approach was that it avoided creating a single over-arching institution to fight corruption. There are many powerful opponents of reform. Influential institutions and individuals resist any interference with their privileges. In order to cause a mass exodus from an entrenched corruption system, a seminal event or defining process is needed to alter expectations and incentives that are sufficient to encourage significant numbers of individuals to desert the corruption system and assist the integrity system in exposing and destroying it. The Fitzgerald Inquiry was such an event. This article also briefly addresses methods for destroying national corruption systems where they emerge and exist.

Paying for a Basic Income

I became interested in basic income ideas in 1989. I came to these ideas via the issue of effective marginal tax rates (EMTRs) that was raging at both ends of the income scale. The loudest, public, and most forceful arguments were being made by the Centre for Policy Studies at Monash University who were demanding a maximum rate of 39 percent, the same as the then company tax rate (Centre of Policy Studies, 1988). Quieter and less publicized voices (especially from Peter Saunders and the University of New South Wales Centre for Social Policy Research) were putting forward the obvious point that the highest effective marginal tax rates were suffered by low-income workers for whom the tapering of a range of welfare payments could drive the effective marginal tax rates well over 100 percent without even taking into account the costs of going to work (including child care).

Stagnancy in Indonesia's reformed state asset management policies and practices: a wicked problem?

The policies and regulations governing the practice of state asset management have emerged as an urgent question among many countries worldwide for there is heightened awareness of the complex and crucial role that state assets play in public service provision. Indonesia is an example of such country, introducing a ‘big bang’ reform in state asset management laws, policies, regulations, and technical guidelines. Indonesia exemplified its enthusiasm in reforming state asset management policies and practices through the establishment of the Directorate General of State Assets in 2006. The Directorate General of State Assets have stressed the new direction that it is taking state asset management laws and policies through the introduction of Republic of Indonesia Law Number 38 Year 2008, which is an amended regulation overruling Republic of Indonesia Law Number 6 Year 2006 on Central/Regional Government State Asset Management. Law number 38/2008 aims to further exemplify good governance principles and puts forward ‘the highest and best use of assets’ principle in state asset management. The purpose of this study is to explore and analyze specific contributing influences to state asset management practices, answering the question why innovative state asset management policy implementation is stagnant. The methodology of this study is that of qualitative case study approach, utilizing empirical data sample of four Indonesian regional governments. Through a thematic analytical approach, this study provides an in-depth analysis of each influencing factors to state asset management reform. Such analysis suggests the potential of an ‘excuse rhetoric’; whereby the influencing factors identified are a smoke-screen, or are myths that public policy makers and implementers believe in, as a means to explain stagnant implementation of innovative state asset management practice. Thus, this study offers deeper insights into the intricate Web that influences state asset management innovative policies to state asset management policy makers; to be taken into consideration in future policy writing.

Is good governance conceptualised in Indonesia's state asset management laws?

Indonesia exemplified its enthusiasm in reforming state asset management policies and practices through the establishment of the Directorate General of State Assets in 2006. The Directorate General of State Assets have stressed the new direction that it is taking state asset management laws through the introduction of Republic of Indonesia Law Number 38 Year 2008; an amended regulation overruling Republic of Indonesia Law Number 6 Year 2006 on Central/Regional Government State Asset Management. Law number 38/2008 aims to further exemplify good governance principles and puts forward a ‘the highest and best use of assets’ principle in state asset management. However, there is still ambiguity in the meaning of ‘the conceptualisation of good governance within state asset management’—particularly in regards to the definition, context, extent, examples, and guidelines. This paper examines state asset management regulations in three Indonesian regional government case studies: DIY Yogyakarta, Gorontalo Province, and DKI Jakarta. This paper introduces the ‘Good Governance Evaluator Tool’, informed by Miles and Hubermann (1994) work in tabulation and matrix data analysis tool. To facilitate the process of good governance conceptualisation evaluation, it is empirical that each state asset management law, policies, technical guidelines from each regional government is evaluated against the five good governance principles: accountability, transparency, efficiency, stakeholder participation, and regulatory compliance. Through this process which good governance principles are conceptualised, the level in which it is discussed within each clause of a state management law, and the level in which this conceptualisation is understood by state asset managers; can be mapped. This paper emphasises the variance, and at times contradictory nature, in which good governance principles are conceptualised in Indonesia’s state asset management laws. As such this paper informs future asset management policy makers of the quality in which asset governance is exemplified in current laws and technical guidelines.