How to Draft (or Update) a Cross-Border Ethics Code for Today's Era of ESG, CSR, DEI, and Ethical Investing

Companies have been issuing codes of conduct and ethics for decades. But in our current era of ESG, CSR, DEI, and ethical investing, multinationals' conduct codes have become more vital and complex than ever. Meanwhile, though, ethics/conduct codes today draw closer scrutiny than ever before. Complicating this, companies continue to conflate their conduct codes for their own in-house staff with the completely different issue of their supply chain codes addressing labor rights of non-employees who work for other employers down the company's supply chain. This fast-paced session makes the case for launching a robust international code of conduct/ethics―and it also sets out the "devil's advocate" position for why an overly aggressive conduct code can trigger expensive problems.

Learning Objectives:

1. Distinguish the various types of corporate codes of conduct 
2. Lists the topics that these conduct codes usually address
3. Tackles code-of-conduct enforcement and auditing