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11 - Who Is a Corporation?

Attributing the Moral Might of the Corporate Form

from Part III - Domestic Attribution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2024

Melissa J. Durkee
Affiliation:
Washington University, St Louis
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Summary

In recent years, there has been increasing pressure on corporate entities to engage in moral or ethical decision- making. Given the immense economic and political power of modern corporate entities, it becomes critical to determine the origin point of these ethical decisions, both to ensure that corporations are held responsible for their moral choices and to tether corporate moral decision-making power to the appropriate group, or groups, of human beings. Determining to whom corporate morality should be attributed is not an easy task, however, and requires consideration not just of the people involved in the corporation but also of the role the corporation plays within a representative democracy. Ultimately, inquiry into the attribution of a corporation’s moral judgments may best be seen as fluid and context-dependent. That is, it should examine both the way the corporation is structured and the importance of representation for the moral choices of corporate stakeholders.

Type
Chapter
Information
States, Firms, and Their Legal Fictions
Attributing Identity and Responsibility to Artificial Entities
, pp. 214 - 234
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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