The Grim Reaper
TNPer
The August Consular Office
Consuls Johanna Jura & Varus Nascorus
The August Consular Office wishes to table the following draft. The draft is authored by Consul Johanna Jura, and joined by Consul Varus Nascorus.
Proposed Resolution to Subject Transnational Corporate Activity to Sovereign Regulation
Preamble
In order to sufficiently regulate transnational corporate activities in the interests of both consumers and workers, it is necessary to guarantee international regulatory structures.
All states will be required to enforce penalties imposed by law for illegal activities in other states.
Article 1. Definitions.
1.1. The term 'corporation' is hereafter used to describe any organisation operating for the purpose of providing profits to one or more private (i.e., individuals or other corporations) shareholders.
1.2 The use of the term corporation, by way of definition as a profit-making entity, explicitly excludes organisations that collect a majority of their revenue through charitable donations or taxation (i.e., without an accompanying exchange of goods or services).
1.3. The term 'traded corporation' is hereafter used to describe any corporation wherein the majority of ownership in the corporation is accounted for by financial instruments that can be traded to represent proportional ownership (i.e., shares).
1.4. The term 'transnational corporation' is hereafter used to describe any corporation operating in any substantial manner in multiple sovereign states, including but not limited to hiring employees under the auspices of labour laws in multiple jurisdictions, paying taxes in multiple jurisdictions, holding patents or trademarks in multiple jurisdictions, holding web assets denominated in the top-level domains of multiple jurisdictions, adding value to goods in multiple states, contributing money to election campaigns in multiple states, or any combination of such activities.
1.5. The term 'traded transnational corporation' is hereafter used to describe any corporation fulfilling the definitions in both 1.3 and 1.4.
1.6. "Elected official", where it refers to an elected official of a labour union, refers to an official taking a position wholly accorded to them through election by the general membership and for which there is no condition of eligibility beyond holding general membership.
Article 2. International regulation.
2.1. All majority privately-owned corporations operating in multiple sovereign states will be required to report any and all documentation relating to legal proceedings, including but not limited to the filing of taxes, to any and all jurisdictions within which they operate.
2.2. Corporations committing crime or illegal activity may be prosecuted for the same illegal activities in multiple sovereign states that each have jurisdiction over the activity in question.
2.3. States rescind the statute of limitations for transnational corporations.
2.4. Majority shareholders and executives of corporations attempting to begin, or currently undertaking, the process of declaring bankruptcy do not have limited liability in the case of prosecution for violations of state tax codes.
Article 3. Compliance reporting & auditing.
3.1. Traded corporations are compelled to produce an Annual Compliance with Transnational Operating Regulation Report (hereafter, ACTORR) prior to the end of each year in the earliest time-zone.
3.2. ACTORR will include the substantial share portfolio of the corporation, including changes in their trading position since the prior ACTORR.
3.3. ACTORR will include at least the smaller of the following - largest shareholders exceeding 51% of minority ownership in the corporation, as well as all majority owners; or, all shareholders exceeding 1% ownership. It will also include the current trading position of each shareholder.
3.4. ACTORR will include the total tax paid and refunds received in every relevant jurisdiction.
3.5. ACTORR will include the dividends paid.
3.6. ACTORR will include the salary and bonuses paid to all executives.
3.7. ACTORR will include the mean, mode, and median remuneration paid to employees in each jurisdiction separately.
3.8. ACTORR will include gender and majority:minority racial ratios for both employees and executives separately.
3.9. ACTORR will include all donations to any charitable foundation, as well as explicit indication of any relevant conflict of interest including ownership or executive overlap.
3.10. The ACTORR is to be accompanied with an audit statement attested to by a government official from the jurisdiction of incorporation, and an elected official of a labour union in the same or similar industry, with the cost of the audit to be borne in full by the government of incorporation unless otherwise agreed through bilateral agreement with another sovereign actor or labour organization.
Article 4. Rights and restrictions regarding transnational trade.
4.1. All states must guarantee the right to collective bargaining.
4.2. Any and all legal proceedings against a transnational corporation, where counsel in the form of either legal or expert opinions is sought, must include representation from an elected official of a labour union engaged in or having engaged previously in collective bargaining with the corporation in question. If no such official is available, then an elected official of a labour union in the same or similar industry is sufficient.
Article 5. Intellectual property.
5.1. All states are compelled to maintain an explicit licensing into the public domain, by which the enforcement of the public domain licensing is the responsibility of the state in question.
5.2. All states are compelled to impose and enforce a fine for transnational corporations attempting to assert ownership over a public domain licensed intellectual property.
5.3. States are barred from adopting the trademark or patent law of another state through bilateral agreement, and must negotiate intellectual property without regard for successful processes of trademark or patent in a different jurisdiction.
5.4. All states are compelled to limit copyright terms to, at maximum, the life of the author, with the freedom to impose stricter conditions.
5.5. All states are compelled to limit damages payable for copyright infringement to the revenue gained from the transfer of goods and services in exchange for financial compensation that constitute the infringing act.
Article 6. Defining critical industries and operations.
6.1. Critical industries are defined as those operating to produce and distribute pharmaceutical & recreational substances, agricultural produce, security & military, medical assistance, firearms, transportation (e.g. automobiles, aircraft, and watercraft), education, and utilities.
6.2. Utilities are defined as industries operating to produce and distribute goods and services necessitating the use of shared infrastructure for efficient operation, including but not limited to water, electricity, telecommunications (e.g. radio stations, internet service providers, and satellites), public transportation, and gas.
6.3. In regards to pharmaceutical and recreational substances, critical operations are those that produce chemical compounds to be administered to a living being for the purposes of affecting a change to biochemical functions. Those that function on neurochemistry are hereafter known as psychoactives, whilst those that function to kill or inhibit bacteria or protozoa are hereafter known as antibiotics. Those that produce a neurological or behavioural compulsion to continue consumption for reasons unrelated to completing the instructed course of medication are hereafter known as addictive, noting that this category should be interpreted spectrally.
6.4. In regards to agricultural produce, agricultural produce that is able to reproduce (i.e. livestock or seeds, including suicide-seeds) are hereafter known as reproductive. Examples of non-reproductive agriculture produce include eggs or dairy. Agricultural produce that may have cultures of reproductive matter, like honey, are hereafter known as potential contaminants.
6.5. In regards to education, critical operations are those by which individuals complete assessed taskwork in order to achieve some form of state-recognized qualification that indicates either capacity relative to a known skill cap (i.e. a driver’s license) or to a cohort of peers (i.e. standardized testing for university examination). Written or evaluative material utilized to standardize such assessment (i.e. grading rubrics, physical examination papers, or theses) are hereafter referred to as assessment materials.
6.6 In regards to utilities, critical operations are those by which shared infrastructure are created, maintained, and utilized for distribution, including but not limited to water pipes, sewage pipes, gas pipes, bodies for the assignment of radio spectrum, bodies for the assignment of satellite orbit paths, and railroad track.
Article 7. Ensuring sovereign control of critical operations.
7.1. No agreement, contractual or otherwise, may alienate any entity from competing with specific corporations in the distribution of critical operations. States retain the right to monopolize or otherwise regulate critical operations.
7.2. No agreement, contractual or otherwise, may place limitations on state acquisition of corporate critical operations exceeding those existing with entities without pre-existing corporate relationships.
7.3. Corporations undertaking critical operations are subject to the approval of a state regulatory body in the case of an attempted takeover by a transnational corporation.
7.4. States are explicitly permitted to cap the price or quantity of critical operations.
7.5. All states are compelled to utilize the explicit protections accorded by 7.4 to collectively regulate the proliferation of antibiotics for the purpose of responding to the evolution of antibiotic resistance, and to guarantee access by publically-funded research projects to both patented and illicit medication.
7.6. All states are compelled to utilize the explicit protections accorded by 7.4 to collectively regulate the design of assessment materials for the purpose of providing consistent standardization for qualifications with international purchase (i.e. qualifications used to gain university admission, research positions, military positions, or to operate particular equipment).
Article 8. Regulating transnational participation in critical operations.
8.1. Corporations are required to use as their operating language the official language of the state in which they operate if they seek to undertake critical operations.
8.2. Transnational corporations may not import or export goods for critical operations without regulatory permission from both subject states. Transnational corporations functioning as third parties, importing or exporting goods for the sole purposes of transferring it from the ownership of a first party to a second party, are exempt.
8.3. Transnational corporations utilizing publically-funded research to produce intellectual property may not patent the intellectual property for use in critical operations unless a license fee is paid on agreement with the state/s that funded the research.
8.4. Transnational corporations are not permitted to take majority ownership of assets that collectively enable critical operations necessitating the use of fissionable material within a nuclear reactor.
8.5. Transnational corporations are firstly not permitted to cease critical operations without first offering all necessary assets to the relevant state at cost or below, secondly may not remove such assets from the state without permission, and thirdly are liable for compensating the state for depreciation and damage incurred in the time period from cessation of critical operations to the commencement of state ownership.
