Chapter 1: The Enterprise of Empire: Evolving Understandings of Corporate Identity and Responsibility
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
11-2015
Editor(s)
Jena Martin and Karen E. Bravo
ISBN
9781107095526
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Language
en-US
Abstract
This chapter traces the development of the enterprise of empire building in the era of colonial expansion and considers the relationship of corporate power to state sovereignty to highlight points of continuity in debates over the role of commercial enterprises in global governance.
Section 2 examines the debates over legal personality in international law to enhance the evolving understanding of the nature and character of the corporate person and assess whether corporate persons can be said to possess rights and responsibilities comparable to that of a sovereign state. Section 3 explores the evolution of the corporate form through the business of empire building during the age of imperialism and the role of private commercial actors in creating core doctrines of international law. Finally, Section 4 posits that conventional approaches to the concepts of sovereignty and subjects in international law fail to fully capture the actualities of today, to the detriment of both international human rights and international business.
Recommended Citation
Erika George,
Chapter 1: The Enterprise of Empire: Evolving Understandings of Corporate Identity and Responsibility
,
in
The Business and Human Rights Landscape: Moving Forward, Looking Back
19
(Jena Martin and Karen E. Bravo ed.,
2015).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/3840
