Private Law Theory

ABSTRACT
We propose Juristic Transcendence as a normative and structural framework for reimagining corporate personhood in the age of systemic asymmetry. At the heart of liberal democratic governance lies an implicit social contract built on shared sacrifice: citizens are called upon to bleed, serve, and absorb risk to preserve the polity. Yet corporations, while legally endowed with personhood, remain structurally immune to this sacrificial logic. They accumulate rights without corresponding burdens, extracting value while remaining insulated from the civic costs borne by human actors. Drawing on political philosophy, legal theory, and economic sociology, the paper argues that this exemption is not an error of law but a calibrated asymmetry that insulates capital from the sacrificial economy. Juristic Transcendence proposes that corporations exceeding defined thresholds of systemic significance, whether through market capitalization, infrastructural centrality, or algorithmic governance power, must be conscripted into non-fiscal civic obligations. These include structural reciprocity, remunerated redistribution, and a constitutional form of capital conscription. Rather than a call for philanthropy or enhanced CSR, the theory demands the juridical realignment of artificial personhood with ontological burden. The paper argues for embed structural vulnerability into corporations, otherwise democratic institutions risk a slow decay of meaning, legitimacy, and public consent.

Sarpong, Prince, A Theory of Juristic Transcendence: Reimagining Corporate Personhood in the Age of Asymmetric Sacrifice (August 13, 2025).