Someone has a conflict of interest when that person is in a position of trust requiring the exercise judgment on behalf of others (people, institutions, etc.) and has interests or OBLIGATIONS of the sort that might interfere with the exercise of such judgment, and which the person is MORALLY REQUIRED to either avoid or openly acknowledge.

The lesser requirement of open acknowledgment is usually adopted when it seems too burdensome to require that persons in positions of trust divest themselves of the interest that conflicts with a position of responsibility. For example, some journals require that authors disclose any substantial financial interests that might have biased their research assessment. Requiring investigators to divest themselves of investments that they may have made on the basis of their scientific judgment would be too burdensome, and might even suppress publication.

Dictionary definitions frequently apply the term only to conflicts between a person’s private interests and those of a public office, and by extension with that person’s professional obligations and RESPONSIBILITIES . However, there can also be conflicts of interest in which private interests do not enter. For example, the American Bar Association specifies as part of a general rule on conflict of interest that lawyers should not represent a client if such representation may be materially limited by the lawyer’s responsibilities to another client or to a third party. There is no similar rule requiring engineers or engineering firms to avoid, say, building manufacturing facilities for, or supplying parts to, two companies that directly compete in the same market, although the engineering firm might need to be especially careful to avoid disclosing the proprietary information of one company to the other.

This example illustrates the point that one needs to look carefully at the nature of a PROFESSIONAL’S RESPONSIBILITY or PUBLIC OFFICIAL’S obligations and responsibilities in order to know when conflicting interests become a conflict of interest, that is, when a situation that requires discretion to handle the actual or potential conflict fairly is one that the person is morally required to avoid altogether, or at least to disclose to all parties. Policies requiring financial disclosure, that is disclosure of financial interests that might conflict with judgment as a researcher or as public official, is very commonly called a “conflict of interest policy,” although such financial conflict of interest is only one specific type.