Aristotelian Decency as a Corrective for Compliance-Induced Environmental Racism

• Published in: Georgetown international environmental law review 2022-10, Vol.34 (1), p.33
• Main Authors: Ostas, Daniel T, de los Reyes, Gastón
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Compliance; Corporate law; Discrimination; Environmental justice; Environmental law; Environmental racism; Environmental risk; Ethics; Financial management; Low income areas; Risk management; Social responsibility
• ISSN: 2380-1905

This Article addresses the phenomenon of corporate compliance decisions that systematically allocate environmental risks to low-income communities, disproportionately affecting people of color. The economic logic of financial risk management (tRM) coupled with aggressive legal strategies create a perverse incentive that generates this racially biased outcome. We examine the ethics of tRM in light of this phenomenon and develop a distinction between legal compliance and legal cooperation. We argue that justice demands that management take responsibility to avoid atui redress environmental racism and adopt a more cooperative framework; we then offer guidance on how to keep application of this framework tractable, the Article discusses both corporate legal strategies and corporate social responsibilities with reference to the Aristotelian commitment to epieikeia, or decency, which Aristotle presents as a virtuous way to correct for the limitations of general law. Proceeding in three parts, the Article considers the economics of compliance, examines managerial ethical obligations with regard to law generally, and offers Aristotelian virtue ethics as a means of framing s(xiai responsibilities with regard to environmental law and justice. The Article contributes to compliance, strategy, and social responsibility literatures. More particularly, it offers a practical compliance framework suited to managers in their engagement with both public and private environmental law.