Corporate Sovereignty: Law and Government under Capitalism

"Refinery explosions. Accounting scandals. Bank meltdowns. All of these catastrophes - and many more - might rightfully be blamed on corporations. In response, advocates have suggested reforms ranging from increased government regulation to corporate codes of conduct to stop corporate abuses. Joshua Barkan argues that these reactions, which view law as a limit on corporations, misunderstand law's role in fostering corporate power. In Corporate Sovereignty, Barkan rethinks corporate power as a mode of political sovereignty. Situating analysis of U.S., British, and international corporate law alongside careful readings in political and social theory, he demonstrates that the Anglo-American corporation and modern political sovereignty are founded in and bound together through a principle of legally sanctioned immunity from law. The problems that corporate-led globalization present for governments result not from regulatory failures as much as from corporate immunity exported across the globe"--Unedited summary from book cover.