Research Handbook on Corporate Purpose and Personhood

Edited by Elizabeth Pollman, Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School and Robert B. Thompson, Peter P. Weidenbruch Jr. Professor of Business Law, Georgetown University Law Center, US

Contents:

Corporate purpose and personhood: an introduction ix

PART I JUMPING OFF POINTS FOR A NEW LOOK
AT TRADITIONAL TOPICS
1 What Jensen and Meckling really said about the public company 2
Brian R. Cheffins
2 Business purpose and the objective of the corporation 27
Edward B. Rock
3 A more equitable corporate purpose 47
Veronica Root Martinez

PART II SHAREHOLDERS VS. STAKEHOLDERS, BENEFIT
CORPORATIONS, AND ESG
4 The “value” of a public benefit corporation 68
Jill E. Fisch & Steven Davidoff Solomon
5 Enlightened shareholder value, stakeholderism, and the quest for
managerial accountability 91
Dorothy S. Lund
6 The shareholder-stakeholder alliance: exposing the link between
shareholder power and the rise of a corporate social purpose 109
Lisa M. Fairfax
7 ESG investing, or, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em 130
Ann M. Lipton
8 Purpose in business association statutes: much ado about something
(but not much) 148
Brett McDonnell
9 For whom is the corporation managed and what is its purpose?
A stakeholder perspective based on the law of Delaware 165
Cynthia A. Williams

PART III BROADER THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS FOR
GROUNDING VIEWS OF CORPORATE PURPOSE AND
PERSONHOOD
10 Shareholder primacy is illogical 186
Frank Partnoy
11 The “franchise” view of the corporation: purpose, personality, public policy 201
Saule T. Omarova
12 Corporate personality, purpose, and liability 222
Paul B. Miller
13 Facts and values in corporate legal theory 240
James D. Nelson

PART IV CORPORATE PERSONALITY, POLITICS, AND RIGHTS
14 Regulatory partitioning as a key function of corporate personality 263
Mariana Pargendler
15 Corporate personhood and the putative First Amendment right to discriminate 283
Kent Greenfield & Daniel A. Rubens
16 The corporation’s political purpose 299
Sarah C. Haan
17 Personhood, procedure and the endurance of corporate compliance 320
Miriam H. Baer

PART V LESSONS FROM COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL
STUDY AND POSSIBLEWAYS FORWARD
18 Beyond shareholder value: exploring justifications for a broader
corporate purpose 344
Martin Petrin
19 Lessons from India’s struggles with corporate purpose 362
Afra Afsharipour
20 Varieties of shareholderism: three views of the corporate purpose cathedral 386
Amir N. Licht

Index