기관투자자의 사회적 책임투자 - 신인의무를 중심으로 -

This paper deals with the roles of fiduciary duty for institutional investors to perform Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) and the measures for activating SRI more vividly. To reach the purpose firstly the dual characteristics of financial institutions as ‘unseen polluter’ and ‘universe owner’ are examined, and then the importance of SRI of institutional investors is highlighted. Secondly fiduciary duty of institutional investors as a hinderance of SRI is analysed. The duty consists of duty of loyalty and duty of prudence. The sole interest test and the best interest test conventionally consider an investment putting a priority on non-financial considerations as violation of duty of loyalty, and the modern prudent investor principle has a tendency for institutional investors and fund managers to follow the old-fashioned invest practices in the industry. These aspects of the duties force investors to hesitate to invest socially and ethically. Finally this article proposes the measures to promote SRI including new interpretation and legislation of SRI. In conclusion given SRI is a kind of capitalist tool the most important challenge is creating market conditions under which enlightened firms can get more gains than the other ones.