Corporate Duties To The Public

Today's economic and social context demands that corporations - once seen only as private actors - owe duties to the public.

In a world where the grocery store may be more powerful than the government and corporations are the governors rather than the governed, the notion of corporations being only private actors is slowly evaporating. Gone is the view that corporations can focus exclusively on maximizing shareholder wealth. Instead, the idea that corporations owe duties to the public is capturing the attention of not only citizens and legislators, but corporations themselves. This book explores the deepening connections between corporations and the public. It explores timely - and often controversial - public issues with which corporations must grapple including the corporate purpose, civil and criminal liability, taxation, human rights, the environment and corruption. Offering readers an encompassing, balanced, and systematic understanding of the most pertinent duties corporations should bear, how they work, whether they are justified, and how they should be designed in the future, this book clarifies corporations' roles vis-à-vis the public.

This book examines the legal duties of Directors Of Public Companies in the light of the stakeholder approach to the firm. It considers the theory that directors are not simply agents of corporate shareholders,but have a duty to take into consideration and, where appropriate, balance the interests of several constituencies, each of which has a legitimate stake in the company, its activities and its development. This book is essentially the first to relate the stakeholding arguments and Third Way politics, as popularised by commentators such as Will Hutton and Anthony Giddens, to the prospects for reform of company law in an authoritative but accessible format. It is an ideal text for company law, business and politics students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, and will also provide companies with a straightforward and welcome guide to this often complex area, particularly to the important issues of accountability and regulation.

This treatise argues that it should be the function of company law to promote the public interest. It examines a number of topical issues and the protection of interests largely ignored by company law, such as those of employees and the local community.

Leading scholars analyze key issues in fiduciary duties in business―one of the most salient applications of fiduciary law and theory.

Why we’re better off treating corporations as people under the law—and making them behave like citizens Are corporations people? The U.S. Supreme Court launched a heated debate when it ruled in Citizens United that corporations can claim the same free speech rights as humans. Should corporations be able to claim rights of free speech, religious conscience, and due process? Kent Greenfield provides an answer: Sometimes. With an analysis sure to challenge the assumptions of both progressives and conservatives, Greenfield explores corporations' claims to constitutional rights and the foundational conflicts about their obligations in society. He argues that a blanket opposition to corporate personhood is misguided, since it is consistent with both the purpose of corporations and the Constitution itself that corporations can claim rights at least some of the time. The problem with Citizens United is not that corporations have a right to speak, but for whom they speak. The solution is not to end corporate personhood but to require corporations to act more like citizens.