conflict minerals

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Have you ever wanted to learn the basics about blockchain? Do you think it’s all hype and a passing fad? Whatever your view, take a look at my new article, Beyond Bitcoin: Leveraging Blockchain to Benefit Business and Society, co-authored with Rachel Epstein, counsel at Hedera Hashgraph.  I became interested in blockchain a year ago because I immediately saw potential use cases in supply chain, compliance, and corporate governance. I met Rachel at a Humanitarian Blockchain Summit and although I had already started the article, her practical experience in the field added balance, perspective, and nuance. 

The abstract is below:

Although many people equate blockchain with bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and smart contracts, the technology also has the potential to transform the way companies look at governance and enterprise risk management, and to assist governments and businesses in mitigating human rights impacts. This Article will discuss how state and non-state actors use the technology outside of the realm of cryptocurrency. Part I will provide an overview of blockchain technology. Part II will briefly describe how public and private actors use blockchain today to track food, address land grabs, protect refugee identity rights, combat bribery and corruption, eliminate voter fraud…

This has been a good week for those who care about the human rights crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers joined actress Robin Wright as the latest in a string of celebrities raising awareness about “conflict minerals”, the tin, tantalum and gold that appear in cell phones, computers, automobiles, baby diapers and toothpaste. Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show  in Las Vegas on Monday, the CEO of Intel got as much press for his declaration that his products will be “conflict-free” in 2014 as he did for his discussion about new innovations. 

The “conflict minerals” at issue are the subject of a complex regulation in Dodd-Frank that requires certain US issuers, regardless of size to conduct extensive due diligence and disclose whether or not their products are “DRC-Conflict free” so that consumers and investors can make informed decisions about whether the products may be supporting rebels involved in rape, torture and child slavery. The purpose of the law, which the SEC will regulate and enforce, is to bring peace, security and stability to the Democratic Republic of Congo. By drying up funding for the rebels, the theory goes, sexual and gender-based violence…

I’m the newest member to the Business Law Prof Blog and also
the newest member of the team to academia. 
In my past life, I spent several years as outside counsel doing
commercial litigation and labor and employment work and then twelve years as
in-house counsel, leaving corporate life as a deputy general counsel, chief
privacy officer, and compliance and ethics officer.  That experience guides my scholarly and
teaching interests, which include corporate governance, regulatory compliance,
corporate social responsibility, business and human rights, legal ethics, legal
issues related to social enterprises and social entrepreneurship; and how
legislation affects and motivates corporate behavior.

To that end I have written on (1)  the need for
an affirmative defense to corporate criminal liability for an effective
compliance program, using the FCPA as a pilot;  (2) the potential
unintended consequences of the Dodd-Frank conflict minerals provision,
which requires US issuers to disclose whether they source minerals from the
Democratic Republic of Congo and relies on the SEC for execution of this human
rights law; and (3) how the government can incentivize corporations to move beyond
voluntary initiatives and industry standards for human rights due diligence in
the wake of  the 2011…