Like Frankenstein’s Creature, Corporations Have Been Misunderstood

Abstract

'A corporation may have legal rights, but that does not mean it has moral rights underneath'. That, at least, as I discuss in this talk, is one understanding of corporate rights – an understanding that is today widespread, especially amongst progressives. That is not the only understanding of corporate rights available to us, however. There is another. This alternative understanding, which I explore, holds, instead, that a corporation does have underlying moral rights. Further, it holds that these underlying moral rights are what a corporation’s legal rights ought, in fact, to be based upon. Using this alternative understanding of the corporation, I discuss investor-owned public companies. I demonstrate, on the basis of this alternative understanding, that the underlying moral rights of public companies are ignored under law today. I argue that public companies, in fact, are treated as slaves. I finish by commenting on the negative consequences of corporate enslavement for the environment. This is the text of a talk given at the 2021 inaugural Environmental Law Doctoral Researchers’ Workshop, hosted by Melbourne Law School’s Centre for Resources, Energy and Environmental Law and UNSW Sydney Faculty of Law & Justice.