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Recent decades have witnessed environmental, social, and economic upheaval, with major corporations contributing to a host of interconnected crises. This book examines the dynamics of corporate form that incentivize harmful excesses and presents an alternative vision to help secure an environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable future.
List of contents
- PART ONE: THE DYNAMISM OF THE CORPORATION
- Chapter 1. Introduction and Overview
- Chapter 2. Defining the Corporation and Corporate Law
- Chapter 3. Contextual Drivers of Difference
- PART TWO: RE-CONCEPTUALIZING THE CORPORATION
- Chapter 4. Enduring Controversies in Corporate Law
- Chapter 5. The Corporation as Technology
- PART THREE: HARNESSING THE CORPORATION
- Chapter 6. Corporate Pathologies and Corporate Sustainability
- Chapter 7. Re-Calibrating Governance: Industry-by-Industry Approaches
- Chapter 8. Re-Imagining Corporate Accountability
- Chapter 9. Conclusions
About the author
Christopher M. Bruner is the Stembler Family Distinguished Professor in Business Law at the University of Georgia School of Law. His scholarship focuses on corporate law, corporate governance, comparative law, and sustainability, and he has written several books on these topics. He received his A.B., M.Phil., and J.D. from the University of Michigan, the University of Oxford, and Harvard Law School, respectively.
Summary
Recent decades have witnessed environmental, social, and economic upheaval, with major corporations contributing to a host of interconnected crises. The Corporation as Technology examines the dynamics of the corporate form and corporate law that incentivize harmful excesses and presents an alternative vision to render corporate activities more sustainable.
The corporate form is commonly described as a set of fixed characteristics that strongly prioritize shareholders' interests. This book subverts this widely held belief, suggesting that such rigid depictions reinforce harmful corporate pathologies, including excessive risk-taking and lack of regard for environmental and social impacts. Instead, corporations are presented as a dynamic legal technology that policymakers can re-calibrate over time in response to changing landscapes.
This book explores the theoretical and practical ramifications of this alternative vision, focusing on how the corporate form can help secure an environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable future.
Additional text
In this eloquent, well-argued monograph, Christopher Bruner demonstrates again his leadership as a U.S. corporate law scholar who understands the broader context within which corporations operate and the role of corporate law and corporate governance in securing a sustainable future. Although no book can provide the final answers at this stage, this volume outlines the direction in which the important debates must be had.
