Ronald J. Colombo
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199335671
- eISBN:
- 9780199361915
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199335671.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law, Company and Commercial Law
As a predicate to exploring the book's associational approach to corporate constitutional rights, chapter 4 sets forth the prevailing approach. Currently, corporate constitutional rights are based on ...
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As a predicate to exploring the book's associational approach to corporate constitutional rights, chapter 4 sets forth the prevailing approach. Currently, corporate constitutional rights are based on the concept of corporate personhood. This concept has deep roots in the history of the corporation, but received its most profound constitutional status in the 1886 Supreme Court case Santa Clara Corp. v. South Pacific Railroad. Corporations have accumulated a robust set of constitutionally recognized rights since Santa Clara, including, most recently, freedom of speech. Unfortunately, this accumulation has proceeded without much regard to corporate theory, establishing a largely untheorized regime of corporate constitutional rights. One consequence of this is that the important phenomenon of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which ought to bear upon the question of corporate constitutional rights, has not generally been part of the constitutional discussion. This contravenes the perennial linkage between rights and responsibilities.Less
As a predicate to exploring the book's associational approach to corporate constitutional rights, chapter 4 sets forth the prevailing approach. Currently, corporate constitutional rights are based on the concept of corporate personhood. This concept has deep roots in the history of the corporation, but received its most profound constitutional status in the 1886 Supreme Court case Santa Clara Corp. v. South Pacific Railroad. Corporations have accumulated a robust set of constitutionally recognized rights since Santa Clara, including, most recently, freedom of speech. Unfortunately, this accumulation has proceeded without much regard to corporate theory, establishing a largely untheorized regime of corporate constitutional rights. One consequence of this is that the important phenomenon of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which ought to bear upon the question of corporate constitutional rights, has not generally been part of the constitutional discussion. This contravenes the perennial linkage between rights and responsibilities.
