The talk will be held from 1:30 to 3pm in 305 91��ɫ Lanes Offices, Keele campus.

Campbell will argue that the structure of a traditional corporate “business case” should be supplemented by a human rights justification which permits – and may require – a corporation to act independently of its economic interests when this is necessary to fulfill its human rights responsibilities.

Right: Tom Campbell

Campbell, a law and philosophy professor whose fields of interest include justice and human rights, business ethics and the legal theory of ethical positivism, is also the author of eight books on law and ethics: Adam Smith's Science of Morals (Allen & Unwin, 1971); Seven Theories of Human Society (Oxford University Press, 1981); The Left and Rights: A Conceptual Analysis of the Idea of Socialist Rights (Routledge, 1983); Mental Illness: Prejudice, Discrimination and the Law (Dartmouth, 1991); The Legal Theory of Ethical Positivism (Dartmouth, 1996); Prescriptive Legal Positivism (UCL Press/Cavendish, 2004); Rights: A Critical Introduction (Routledge, 2006); and Justice (Palgrave, 2010).

This event is sponsored by the , Schulich School of Business, The Hennick Centre for Business and Law, the (CBERN) and the Ontario Legal Philosophy Partnership.

Visit the website to RSVP, or for more information contact Hilary Martin, CBERN’s research and outreach coordinator, at hmartin@cbern.ca.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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The report was released at a press conference on Tuesday morning. It is available to the public on the and the Web sites.

In the report, Corporate Social Reporting Initiative, which was produced with the support of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, researchers at the Hennick Centre and Jantzi-Sustainalytics address the reasons and scope for and the regulation of corporate social reporting, which applies to topics such as human and labour rights, employee health and safety, local community development and product safety.

The Hennick Centre and Jantzi-Sustainalytics recommend that the OSC clarify existing disclosure obligations to indicate the need to consider the materiality of social issues to investors’ decisions and long-term corporate performance. They also recommend that the OSC facilitate continued dialogue among relevant stakeholders in order to support a shift toward more standardized metrics and reporting in this area.

“The recommendations and discussion set out in this report provide valuable and timely insights on public company social issue disclosure obligations,” said Ontario Minister of Finance Dwight Duncan. “I appreciate the efforts of those who contributed to this report and look forward to reviewing the recommendations in greater detail."

“There is growing momentum in a number of jurisdictions around the world to enhance corporate disclosure on ESG [environmental, social and governance] performance,” said Kevin Ranney, global director, Responsible Investment Services at Jantzi-Sustainalytics. “The OSC has an opportunity to play a leading role in this area, and our recommendations suggest some concrete steps that it can take in doing so.”

This report is the outcome of a December 2009 consultation held in response to the April 2009 non-binding resolution by Laurel Broten, MPP for Etobicoke-Lakeshore, passed unanimously by the legislature of Ontario. That resolution called on the OSC to conduct a consultation into best practices on corporate social responsibility and ESG reporting standards.

“The knowledge gained through enhanced disclosure provides better protection for individual investors,” said Broten. “I appreciate the work put into examining the issue of corporate social performance, given the many complex social issues investors are increasingly considering.”

The round-table consultation and subsequent solicitation of comments drew on the expertise of more than 50 representatives from the investment community; government agencies such as the Ministry of Finance; non-profit organizations such as the Social Investment Organization and the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance; and business, including the mining, energy and banking sectors.

“Increasingly, corporate leaders and investors alike are focusing on sustainable performance and effective risk management. Both will require heightened levels of social disclosure,” said , director of the , and Jarislowsky Dimma Mooney Chair in Corporate Governance at 91��ɫ's Osgoode Hall Law School and Schulich School of Business.

The Globe and Mail wrote about the report on June 15:

Regulators should encourage companies to report more information about their social practices, but do not need to adopt new rules forcing higher disclosure standards, a new report prepared for the Ontario Securities Commission concludes.

The report was prepared for the OSC by the Hennick Centre for Business & Law at 91��ɫ and by Jantzi-Sustainalytics, a private firm that does research and analysis on environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices.

Toronto lawyer Ed Waitzer, Jarislowsky Dimma Mooney Chair in Corporate Governance in 91��ɫ’s Osgoode Hall Law School and the Schulich School of Business, and a former chair of the OSC who helped spearhead the review, said that investors want more disclosure but that there is no clear consensus about which social reporting factors are most relevant. He said companies and other stakeholders are still experimenting with various disclosure options. “In this area, we just don’t have the standards yet,” he said in an interview. “So part of the exercise is how the OSC can take a leadership position in developing the standards.”

Waitzer said existing reporting rules – which require companies to disclose information that is “material” to investors – give ample scope for greater disclosure, but companies have chosen to narrowly interpret what sort of information is material.

The complete article is available on the .

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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With the challenge of a changing external context for research in Canada — both a shifting economic and social cultural environment— a new view of innovation is taking hold and a recognition of the value of collaborations across the spectrum of research is emerging.

Effective collaboration as a part of R&D strategies will provide for significant gains in competitive advantage in innovation and productivity growth for Canadian businesses. While more and more business leaders are recognizing the potential benefits of research collaboration, universities must take up this challenge as well. It's critical for universities to build a more comprehensive and sustainable approach to strengthening research opportunities with external partners.

While it is important that universities develop the skills, talent, and creative and innovative capacity to enhance productivity in the new global economy, building new models to meet these challenges will require collaboration and teamwork at all levels and across all value chains.

Increasingly, the government has recognized the importance of enhanced R&D collaborations and invested in them. However, these increased investments have had difficulty in producing effective public and private sector linkages, resulting in a significant innovation gap — remaining a fundamental challenge for the government.

The difficulty is that the availability and distribution of research funds are increasingly tied to strategic science and technology priority areas. But so much of what drives social change and fuels the modern economy is also derived from social sciences and humanities (SS&H) disciplines. Companies in these sectors (e.g., communications, design, management, law, etc.) have complex challenges and those that derive their primary knowledge inputs from the social science and humanities disciplines account for about $700B (58 per cent) of GDP output, and yet a significant proportion of the research dollars are going to science and technology (S&T) companies that support about $431B (42 per cent) of GDP outputs.

If Canada is going to remain competitive in the new knowledge economy we must heighten collaborative research and development across a broader suite of research areas.

91��ɫ's innovation and partnership strategy takes a broader focus, contributing not only our S&T research but also leveraging the work of our SS&H scholars. 91��ɫ has established significant and sustainable community and regional innovation programs with partners in 91��ɫ Region.

The region is the sixth-largest municipality in Canada, with a growing population of 1.2M. It also serves as the centre-point of Canada’s leading technology corridor, poised to contribute as a significant innovation and commercialization hub given its strong base of IT/software and medical devices/biotechnology companies. It is home to nearly 50 per cent of the medical device technology companies in Canada.

To capitalize on our proximity to 91��ɫ Region, 91��ɫ is currently working actively to form a unique consortium, establishing a Convergence Centre for the development of next generation medical device technologies in Markham. 91��ɫ works with a variety of regional partners on the social innovation side, including the United Way of 91��ɫ Region, regional hospitals, and regional school boards.

To grow and foster new and varied collaborations, a new unique innovation facility that 91��ɫ is developing as part of the convergence centre “Innovation 91��ɫ.” It will have the capability of both mobilizing social innovation research as well as S&T innovation and commercialization. This infrastructure will actively promote research opportunities that build on the research strengths across the university, address the needs of our partners and support the incubation of the most promising innovative ideas.

The key to fostering ultimate research success, whether in the public or private sector, science and technology or the social sciences and humanities, is a shared philosophy and belief in the value of true collaboration and its power to open new areas of opportunity and innovation.

Read the complete post on .

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

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91��ɫ's Hennick Centre for Business & Law has given its inaugural Collaborative Research Grants Program award to an interdisciplinary team of professors studying transnational business grievance.

The $5,000 research grant was awarded to Professors Burkard Eberlein and Alan Richardson of the Schulich School of Business and Professor Stepan Wood of Osgoode Hall Law School for their proposal, "The Dynamics of Interaction in Transnational Business Governance Regimes".

The winning team will use the funds to convene a multidisciplinary workshop in Toronto this fall to explore the interaction among transnational business governance initiatives such as civil society codes of conduct, industry self-regulatory standards, transgovernmental networks of officials and complex multi-stakeholder governance institutions.

In addition to the multidisciplinary workshop, the is launching a colloquia series in 2010-2011 for business and law scholars to present works-in-progress and receive feedback from scholars and graduate students from other disciplines. All applicants from the centre's 2010 Collaborative Research Grants Program will be invited to participate in the series.

For more information on the centre and its Collaborative Research Grants Program, contact Professor Archana Sridhar, associate director of the Hennick Centre for Business & Law, at ext. 55490.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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