In the Best Interest of Children: A Proposal for Corporate Guardians Ad Litem

Abstract

Children are corporate stakeholders without a direct voice in corporate decision-making. Other stakeholders, like employees, customers, and suppliers, can and do influence corporate strategy, but children lack the organization, standing, and legal capacity to assert similar influence. Instead of treating children as a coherent stakeholder group with rights and interests to be respected and supported, firms tend to view children only as potential victims or coveted consumers. Yet, that view is short sighted. Recent international norm-building related to children’s rights and business point toward a more comprehensive consideration of children’s interests in the broad range of business activities. Moreover, children’s best interests substantially overlap with sustainable business practices and implicate human rights generally. Firms must develop expertise in order to identify and give voice to the best interest of children, a capacity which most currently lack. This Article introduces the first corporate model that can effectively advocate for children’s best interests, which is an adapted version of the long-utilized guardian ad litem model used in family court proceedings. Courts appoint guardians ad litem when their decisions impact children who cannot adequately represent themselves because they lack the sophistication or capacity to advocate or state their own best interests. Guardians ad litem serve as objective and impartial officials whose duty is to protect and advocate for the best interest of the children—and they serve only the children. This Article therefore asserts that companies should embed “corporate guardians ad litem” within their organizations to ensure that the best interests of children are considered in the development of corporate strategy and decision-making. The Article introduces three versions of the corporate guardian ad litem, namely, director-level, officer-level, and project-level.