Target 16.3: Rule of law and equal access to justice
Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all
Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
Why shareholder democracy is helpful
Companies affect access to justice mainly through mandatory arbitration clauses that keep employee and consumer claims out of court. They also affect it through private detention contractors whose treatment of detainees raises due-process concerns. Shareholders have used the vote on both. A 2022 Nia Impact Capital proposal asking Tesla to report on the impact of mandatory arbitration won 37.8 percent overall and 66.4 percent of independent votes. Investor pressure in 2019 led JPMorgan Chase to stop underwriting private prison operators and Wells Fargo to refrain from new investments in them. These are marginal contributions. Court systems, legal aid and judicial independence are government functions, so owners help at the margin.
How this was scoredHelpful
Helpful. Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Filed proposals at Tesla and Apple asking each to report on how mandatory arbitration and concealment clauses affect employees' ability to raise and resolve harassment and discrimination claims.
Tesla Inc: Report on Impact of Use of Mandatory Arbitration, As You Sow, 2022-04
Publicised and supported the Apple concealment clauses proposal, reporting that shareholders backed it against the board's recommendation.
Coordinated member resolutions pressing banks on their financing of private prison and detention operators whose treatment of detainees raises due process concerns.
2 campaigns on record
Investigate the company's use of clauses that prevent employees from speaking out about harassment and discrimination.
Result: A majority of shareholders voted in favour against the board's recommendation; the exact percentage is not stated in source
Address the human rights risk in the bank's credit and bond underwriting for private prison and detention operators.
Result: not stated in source
Wells Fargo ended its relationships with GEO Group and CoreCivic in March 2019, and SunTrust halted private prison financing in July 2019.
Related subjects on other maps
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.