Private Law Theory

Allison Anna Tait, Corporate Family Law, 112 Northwestern University Law Review 1 (2019). From Dallas and Dynasty to Hobby Lobby, NewsCorp, and the First Family, American culture is replete with the successes (and failures) of family businesses. But interestingly, even as family businesses are touted as the ‘backbone’ of the American economy (p 5), they fall outside of the logic of corporate law. Corporate law posits that firms, whether publicly traded or privately held, seek to maximize shareholder profits. That is, corporate law ‘presupposes rational actors making rational choices’ aimed at maximizing shareholder value (p 4). On this theory, it is the individual’s responsibility to make decisions that will protect her interests, economic or otherwise, in the business … (more)

[Melissa Murray, JOTWELL, 17 May]

First posted 2019-05-18 09:36:32