Chantal Mak (University of Amsterdam – Faculty of Law) has posted The Elephant in the Room: Contract, Tort and Company Law Dimensions of Supply Chain Liability as Fragments of the Reimagination of Companies’ Legal Personhood on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This contribution proposes that a rethinking of legal personhood for companies is necessary to fully develop legal accountability for the risks global business poses to the living environment. It first sets out how private law has facilitated multinational business at the cost of other interests. Solutions in traditional tort and contract law present a fragmented legal framework that still raises many obstacles to establishing liability for damage to the living environment. A more radical alternative is found in granting rights to nature, such as legal personality for rivers and mountains. Mirroring this debate, in company law a plea is made for repoliticising the role of companies in society through defining their purpose. Exploring the interplay between these strands of private law, it is submitted that the conversation should include the elephant in the room: a rethinking of the conditions for granting legal personhood to companies.
To receive new posts from Legal Theory Blog by email, get a free subscription to Legal Theory Stack.
Lawrence Solum