Business Persons: A Legal Theory of the Firm

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Eric W. Orts (Guardsmark Professor, Guardsmark Professor, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania)

Business Persons

A Legal Theory of the Firm

Eric W. Orts (Guardsmark Professor, Guardsmark Professor, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania)

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English

Oxford University Press
22 August 2013

Economics; Corporate governance & responsibilities; Organisational theory & behaviour; Company, commercial & competition law

"Business firms are ubiquitous in modern society, but an appreciation of how they are formed and for what purposes requires an understanding of their legal foundations. This book provides a scholarly and yet accessible introduction to the legal framework of modern business enterprises.

It explains the legal ideas that allow for the recognition of firms as organizational ""persons"" having social rights and responsibilities.

Other foundational ideas include an overview of how the laws of agency, contracts, and property fit together to compose the organized ""persons"" known as business firms. The institutional legal theory of the firm developed embraces both a ""bottom-up"" perspective of business participants and a ""top-down"" rule-setting perspective of government.

Other chapters in the book discuss the features of limited liability and the boundaries of firms.

A typology of different kinds of firms is presented ranging from entrepreneurial one-person start-ups to complex corporations, as well as new forms of hybrid social enterprises.

Practical applications include contribution to the debates surrounding corporate executive compensation and political free-speech rights of corporations."

By: Eric W. Orts (Guardsmark Professor Guardsmark Professor The Wharton School University of Pennsylvania)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 167mm, Spine: 28mm
Weight: 648g
ISBN: 9780199670918
ISBN 10: 0199670919
Pages: 328
Publication Date: 22 August 2013
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction - The Recognition and Boundaries of the Firm 1: Foundations of the Firm I: Business Entities and Legal Persons 2: Foundations of the Firm II: Agency, Contracts, and Property 3: The Public/Private Distinction: Two Faces of the Business Enterprise 4: Enterprise Liability, Business Participant Liability, and Limited Liability 5: The Nomenclature of Enterprise: A Taxonomy of Modern Business Firms 6: Managing and Regulating the Shifting Boundaries of the Firm 7: Two Applications Conclusion

Eric W. Orts is the Guardsmark Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a secondary appointment in Management. He is the faculty director of the Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership and a co-faculty director of the FINRA Institute at Wharton. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Leuven, the University of Michigan Law School, NYU School of Law, Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, the University of Sydney Law School, and UCLA School of Law. His research focuses on business theory, corporate law, ethics, and sustainability.

Reviews for Business Persons: A Legal Theory of the Firm

This book is a path-breaking analysis of the business firm from a legal perspective. As shown by the debate surrounding the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, the question of corporate legal personality has resurfaced as one of the key legal and political issues of our time. Prof. Orts' book is indispensable reading for anyone interested in exploring the extent to which corporations are people too. Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Irwin I. Cohn Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School