Category Archives: Law and Development
Duncan Wallace, ‘The Reality of Shareholder Ownership: For-profit Corporations as Slaves’
ABSTRACT What is the relationship between shareholders and the corporation? The present scholarly consensus is that, whatever the relationship is, it is not one of owner and owned. This article contests that consensus. It argues that corporations are owned by their shareholders and, further, that corporations so-owned are slaves. In support of this contention, the […]
Silvie Rohr, ‘Corporate Purpose: A Management Concept and the Role of Contract Design’
ABSTRACT In light of systemic crises such as global warming and human rights violations in business operations, the call for reevaluating corporate conduct has become more pressing than ever. As these challenges intensify, a growing consensus advocates for a shift away from shareholder profit maximization towards a more holistic stakeholder governance model. Yet, the question […]
Susanna Kim Ripken, ‘Corporate Civil Disobedience’
ABSTRACT Classic theories of civil disobedience endorse the right of individuals to commit illegal acts to protest unjust laws and policies. Acts of civil disobedience have historically played a central role in exposing injustice and producing vital legal and social change. The literature on civil disobedience is vast; political and legal theorists have long recognized […]
Davis and Pargendler, ‘Legal Heterodoxy in the Global South: Adapting Private Laws to Local Contexts’
ABSTRACT How do private law institutions of developing countries differ from those of developed countries? A common view is that the legal systems of the Global South are often outdated, failed transplants of Global North models, or plagued by enforcement challenges. This book project offers a different perspective by focusing on legal innovation and adaptation […]
Nicholas Mouttotos, ‘The UNIDROIT Principles on International Commercial Contracts and sustainable development’
ABSTRACT A number of motivations currently drive multinational corporations to the inclusion, monitoring, and enforcement of contract requirements for sustainability. These can be either as a result of investor demand for environment, social, and governance policies; regulatory requirements for inclusion of such contract stipulations; or the increasing litigation for conduct leading to environmental harm, but […]
Ramseyer and Evans, ‘What Makes Private Law Transitions Succeed: Lessons from Japan and from Around the World’
ABSTRACT At some point in the growth of successful economies, informal customary rules of contract, tort, and property are replaced by or supplemented by formal private laws. These transitions sometimes succeed and sometimes fail. Yet little research has examined why. What scholarship exists often asserts that success requires new formal private law rules to have […]
‘Rethinking Intellectual Property and Social Justice – A Rich Resource with Comparative Lessons’
The Cambridge Handbook of Intellectual Property and Social Justice (Steven D Jamar and Lateef Mtima, eds 2024). As I have long argued, intellectual property represents a neglected dimension of the global structures affecting equity and redistribution, and I welcome a new volume dedicated to this essential nexus of law and justice, The Cambridge Handbook of […]
Xiaoqian Hu, ‘Property and Prosperity: A Demythifying Story’
ABSTRACT Commonsense wisdom holds that legal protection of private property rights is essential for economic growth. China presents a ‘puzzle’ for commons-ense wisdom. Scholars agree that China achieved tremendous growth in the past 40 years – without formal property law, and more specifically, without a legal system to recognize and protect private property rights. This […]
Faith Majekolagbe, ‘The International Copyright System and Development: The Role of the World Intellectual Property Organization’
ABSTRACT As the main international organisation formed to promote intellectual property (including copyright) policies globally, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has an important role to play in positioning the international copyright system towards better support for access to knowledge and human development. The 2007 WIPO Development Agenda introduced a development dimension into WIPO’s mandate. […]
Faith Majekolagbe, ‘Copyright, Access to Knowledge, and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals’
ABSTRACT Knowledge and knowledge embedded goods are critical in meeting the basic needs of humanity such as food, education, and health care – all of which are reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is not enough to create knowledge, its accessibility on fair terms should also be facilitated for the overall benefit of […]