You will find on our website a wide range of briefings and documents (under 'subjects') on topical environmental and social justice issues. We hope you find them useful and interesting. Use the links above to find out more. If you can't immediately find what you're looking for, try the 'Search' facility above.
Tuesday 6th May 2008
Corner House comment on Woolf Committee report, Ethical business conduct in BAE Systems plc -- the way forward.
"The Woolf Committee report is an interesting academic exercise in corporate ethics.
To address the allegations of bribery that have prompted criminal investigations in the UK, USA and Switzerland, however, BAE should have saved its £1.7 million spent on the Woolf Committee and adopted instead accepted best practice: namely, to employ a law firm as an independent investigator to go through all its internal emails and documents in order to make adequate disclosure to the law enforcement authorities.
If BAE is serious about breaking from the past, it needs to show that it is fully cooperating with all the current investigations by law enforcement officers in the UK, US and Switzerland.
Neither BAE's existing or future ethical policies will have any credibility or public confidence unless the company addresses allegations of past malpractice and unethical practice and cooperates fully with law enforcement authorities. In recent years, it has deployed behind-the-scenes lobbying and its PR machinery to undermine bona fide and independent investigations.
BAE's proclaimed ethical principles of honesty and openness mean little without a full accounting for how the company came to be mired in the bribery allegations in the first place, and without full answers to the many questions that the allegations have raised."
See Corner House submission to the Woolf Committee.
Thursday 24th April 2008
High Court quashes decision to stop BAE-Saudi corruption investigation
The High Court has formally quashed the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) decision to drop its corruption investigation into arms deals between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia. This follows the Court's ruling on 10th April that the Director of the SFO, acting on government advice, acted unlawfully in stopping its BAE-Saudi corruption investigation in December 2006.
The High Court also gave the SFO permission to appeal to the House of Lords, the UK's highest court, against their ruling of 10th April. Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and The Corner House, which sought the judicial review of the SFO decision, did not oppose this, because of the public importance of the legal issues raised, but all parties acknowledged that the SFO had not identified any errors in law in the judgment itself.
In granting the appeal, Lord Justice Moses said "This is a paradigm case . . . that relates to the way this country is governed and to basic constitutional principles."
The judges ordered the SFO to pay the costs of the judicial review so far (capped and agreed in January 2008) and, recognising the public service that The Corner House and CAAT are performing, also ordered the SFO to pay all reasonable costs of the appeal, regardless of the outcome, "win, lose or draw."
A joint press release gives more detail about the quashing and the appeal.
Click on the following links to read more about the 10th April judicial review ruling:
The UK Government has already introduced draft legislation, however, whose effect would be to prevent such a judicial review in future. It would remove one of the checks and balances upon the Government that are crucial to a democratic society. The Corner House and CAAT are calling upon the public and parliamentarians to voice their concerns about the draft Constitutional Renewal Bill.
by Larry Lohmann
article | published May 2008 | summary | PDF
More and more commentators are now recognizing that carbon markets are failing to address the climate crisis. But more discussion is needed of why this is so, and how the way might be cleared for more effective approaches.