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We are in the midst of this generation's re-thinking of the basic principles of corporate law: How are corporations best conceptualized? Who owns them? What are their obligations? This moment has been brought about by a confluence of events that revealed the financial, environmental, and political dangers of corporations left under-regulated. We should take advantage of this moment, primarily by rejecting the simplistic contractarian assumptions that have dominated the field during the last generation. It their place, a public interest element should be inserted into corporate governance by way of expanded fiduciary duties to the corporation as a whole, not just shareholders. The best way to enforce these duties is structural, by expanding the board of directors to include those who can speak for non-shareholder stakeholders of the firm. These expanded duties will inure to the benefit of the firm as a whole, and will likely have positive societal benefits as well.
When used in conjunction with corporations, the term public is misleading. Anyone can purchase shares of stock, but public corporations themselves are uninhibited by a sense of societal obligation or strict public oversight. In fact, managers of most large firms are prohibited by law from taking into account the interests of the public in de...
Rejecting the prevailing paradigm of the corporation as a public good designed exclusively for the maximization of private profit, the scholars included in this volume present their affirmative goal of designing corporate laws that emphasize responsibility, altruism, and unity within the corporate form and between the corporation and the broader society.
Reflecting recent re-examinations of the nature and purpose of the modern publicly held corporation, Progressive Corporate Law introduces the reader to alternative perspectives within the field. The contributors to this volume are loosely bound both by their rejection of the prevailing paradigm of the corporation as a public good designed exclusively for the maximization of private profit and by their affirmative goal of designing corporate laws that accord better with the corporation's political and social realities. The resulting series of visions emphasizes communitarian themes of efficiency and morality of responsibility, altruism, and unity within the corporate form as well as between the corporation and the broader society. Progressive Corporate Law is important reading for business executives, lawyers, policymakers, and others who are concerned with the role of corporations in modem life. Designed to act as a springboard for stimulating discussion, it will be a valuable supplement to courses and seminars in corporate law and business ethics.
Progressive Corporate Governance for the 21st Century is a wide ranging and ambitious study of why corporate governance is the shape that it is, and how it can be better. The book sets out the emergence of shareholder primacy orientated corporate governance using a study of historical developments in the United Kingdom and the United States. Talbot sees shareholder primacy as a political choice made by governments, not a ‘natural’ feature of the inevitable market. She describes the periods of progressive corporate governance which governments promoted in the middle of the 20th century using a close examination of the theories of the company which then prevailed. She critically examines the rise of neoliberal theories on the company and corporate governance and argues that they have had a negative and regressive impact on social and economic development. In examining contemporary corporate governance she shows how regulatory styles as informed and described by prevailing regulatory theories, enables neoliberal outcomes. She illustrates how United Kingdom-derived corporate governance codes have informed the corporate governance initiatives of European and global institutions. From this she argues that neoliberalism has re-entered ex command transition economies through those United Kingdom and OECD inspired corporate governance Codes over a decade after the earlier failed and destructive neoliberal prescriptions for transition had been rejected. Throughout, Talbot argues that shareholder primacy has socially regressive outcomes and firmly takes a stand against current initiatives to enhance shareholder voting in such issues as director remuneration. The book concludes with a series of proposals to recalibrate the power between those involved in company activity; shareholders, directors and employees so that the public company can begin to work for the public and not shareholders.
Kent Greenfield's Corporations Are People Too (And They Should Act Like It) reclaims the legal theory of corporate personhood from the conservative right and champions it for the progressive left. Greenfield argues that corporate personhood, properly construed, can further progressive goals by limiting certain corporate powers, increasing corporate accountability, and enabling corporate management to govern in the interests of all stakeholders. Greenfield advances a progressive account of corporate personhood and elaborates its implementation in constitutional law and in corporate law. This symposium response extends Greenfield's conception of corporate person-hood to related questions in securities law and tort law. This is a first step in-tended to advance a legal reform project that further translates corporate personhood into a coherent doctrine that reaches across U.S. law.
This is an ambitious, original, fascinating and eminently readable study of UK company law in its European and international context. As well as doctrinal company law (whether purely domestic or European), it touches on theory and other laws, especially insolvency, fiscal and private international law affecting the corporate form. It provides insights that will be of interest and use to academic company lawyers across the world and should be on the reading list for any postgraduate course on company law. John Birds, University of Manchester, UK In this book, David Milman explains the significant impact and effect of global trends on the regulation and implementation of UK corporate law, exposing both the historical and future advancement of the global convergence (and divergence) of corporate principles in jurisdictions across the world. The treatment of the subject area is unique, informative and a compelling read. The exposition of the subject matter is thought provoking. The book is comprehensively crafted, exhibiting the author s enviable ability to import detailed and complex issues into a most readable text. Stephen Griffin, University of Wolverhampton, UK In this timely book, David Milman considers how UK corporate law has been affected by the forces of globalisation, arguing that this is not a new development, but rather is part of an historical continuum. He examines corporate law regulatory strategy in general, treatment of foreign shareholders and multinational groups, aspects of private international law and issues connected with cross border insolvency. The substantive chapters cover a full range of issues, from the harmonisation of corporate law, and the common denominators in corporate law principles, to the regulation of overseas companies and foreign stakeholders and transnational cooperation. The book concludes with a consideration of the wider issue of convergence in corporate law and examines whether total convergence is a realistic possibility. National Corporate Law in a Globalised Market is set against the backdrop of the progressive implementation of the Companies Act 2006 and the turmoil of the current world financial crisis. With a scholarly review of current theoretical and policy issues in corporate law this book will be an invaluable resource tool for academics and advanced students as well as practitioners.
Law and economics is the leading intellectual movement in law today. This book examines the first great law and economics movement in the early part of the twentieth century through the work of one of its most original thinkers, Robert Hale. Beginning in the 1890s and continuing through the 1930s, progressive academics in law and economics mounted parallel assaults on free-market economic principles. They showed first that "private," unregulated economic relations were in fact determined by a state-imposed regime of property and contract rights. Second, they showed that the particular regime of rights that existed at that time was hard to square with any common-sense notions of social justice. Today, Hale is best known among contemporary legal academics and philosophers for his groundbreaking writings on coercion and consent in market relations. The bulk of his writing, however, consisted of a critique of natural property rights. Taken together, these writings on coercion and property rights offer one of the most profound and elaborated critiques of libertarianism, far outshining the better-known efforts of Richard Ely and John R. Commons. In his writings on public utility regulation, Hale also made important contributions to a theory of just, market-based distribution. This first, full-length study of Hale's work should be of interest to legal, economic, and intellectual historians.
The community of corporate law scholars in the United States is fragmented. One group, heavily influenced by economic analysis of corporations, is exploring the merits of increasing shareholder power vis-a-vis directors. Another group, animated by concern for social justice, is challenging the traditional, shareholder-centric view of corporate law, arguing instead for a model of stakeholder governance. The current disagreement within corporate law is as fundamental as in any area of law, and the debate is more heated than at any time since the New Deal. This paper is part of a debate on the audacious question, Can Corporate Law Save the World? In the first part of the debate, Professor Kent Greenfield builds on his book, THE FAILURE OF CORPORATE LAW: FUNDAMENTAL FLAWS AND PROGRESSIVE POSSIBILITIES, offering a provocative critique of the status quo and arguing that corporate law matters to issues like the environment, human rights, and the labor question. In response, Professor Smith contends that corporate law does not matter in the way Professor Greenfield claims. Corporate law is the set of rules that defines the decision making structure of corporations, and reformers like Professor Greenfield have only two options for changing corporate decision making: changing the decision maker or changing the decision rule. More specifically, he focuses on board composition and shareholder primacy. Professor Smith argues that changes in corporate law cannot eradicate poverty or materially change existing distributions of wealth, except by impairing the creation of wealth. Changes in corporate law will not clean the environment. And changes in corporate law will not solve the labor question. Indeed, the only changes in corporate law that will have a substantial effect on such issues are changes that make the world worse, not better.