From John Palfrey’s blog:

This press release is actually big news. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Vodafone have been working very hard — alongside academics and NGOs — to produce a set of common principles guiding company behavior when faced with laws, regulations and policies that interfere with the achievement of human rights. There is an enormous amount of work to be done, but the process is headed in exactly the right direction…

As JP explains, the question is whether we should have laws (reintroduced recently) forbidding multinationals from complying with foreign laws that violate human rights or a code of conduct. JP’s opinion:

If an industry code of conduct were to emerge that has real bite to it, and where NGOs and investors and academics are on hand to ensure that signatory companies live up to it, the results could be far better. And over time, it might well make sense to redact the global industry agreement into law or a treaty to ensure that it is enforceable, evolves over time, and has true public oversight.

The code of conduct, developed behind closed doors, is now going public for discussion, with an impressive list of high-integrity groups involved.

This is a fascinating and crucial issue that we have to resolve if we are to continue living together in close quarters. [Tags: ethics john_palfrey berkman globalism]

Categories: Uncategorized dw