The article “Conflict Minerals Legislation: The SEC’s New Role as Diplomatic and Humanitarian Watchdog” scrutinizes the legislative history and lobbying efforts behind the conflict minerals provision and concludes that, unlike the majority of the Dodd-Frank bill, the conflict minerals rule goals are moral and political, rather than financial. The article argues that the presence of conflict minerals in a company’s product is not inherently material information, and that the Dodd-Frank provision statutorily renders non-material information material. The provision, therefore, expands the SEC’s role beyond its congressional mandate of protecting investors and ensuring capital formation by requiring issuers to engage in additional non-financial disclosures in order to meet the provision’s humanitarian and diplomatic aims.
