‘Precatory proposals’: this phrase from Purgatory has quickly entered the lexicon of those defending access to non-binding shareholder resolutions. Its users should wash their spell checkers out with soap.

‘Precatory proposals’, as I wrote a few weeks ago, is a phrase apparently invented by Leo E. Strine, Jr. Strine is a lecturer at Harvard Law School and a judge in Delaware, and he is no friend of non-binding resolutions. He’d like to see them abolished.

So, those who’ve adopted the phrase – which sounds very legal, very precise – should know what ‘precatory’ means and implies.

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Update 1

SEC Chair, Christopher Cox, announced in testimony before the US House Committee on Financial Services that the SEC will issue new proxy rules before the next proxy season:

‘In connection with the Commission’s review of our proxy rules governing shareholder proposals, we have just completed a series of roundtables that considered, among other issues, the future role of technology in facilitating communications not only between shareholders and their company, but also directly among shareholders themselves. As we prepare to put new proxy rules in place in time for the next proxy season to address the implications of the court’s decision in AFSCME v. AIG, the Commission is also considering ways to facilitate greater online interaction among shareholders by removing any obstacles in the current rules, such as the ambiguity concerning whether use of an electronic shareholder forum could constitute a proxy solicitation.’

FinancialWeek.com reported Cox indicated the regulations (regs) would appear next month.

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For a couple of generations, commentators have described SRI as a three-legged stool:

• shareholder advocacy,

• screening and

• community investing

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