Today's economic and social context demands that corporations - once seen only as private actors - owe duties to the public.

In a world where the grocery store may be more powerful than the government and corporations are the governors rather than the governed, the notion of corporations being only private actors is slowly evaporating. Gone is the view that corporations can focus exclusively on maximizing shareholder wealth. Instead, the idea that corporations owe duties to the public is capturing the attention of not only citizens and legislators, but corporations themselves. This book explores the deepening connections between corporations and the public. It explores timely - and often controversial - public issues with which corporations must grapple including the corporate purpose, civil and criminal liability, taxation, human rights, the environment and corruption. Offering readers an encompassing, balanced, and systematic understanding of the most pertinent duties corporations should bear, how they work, whether they are justified, and how they should be designed in the future, this book clarifies corporations' roles vis-à-vis the public.

Why we’re better off treating corporations as people under the law—and making them behave like citizens Are corporations people? The U.S. Supreme Court launched a heated debate when it ruled in Citizens United that corporations can claim the same free speech rights as humans. Should corporations be able to claim rights of free speech, religious conscience, and due process? Kent Greenfield provides an answer: Sometimes. With an analysis sure to challenge the assumptions of both progressives and conservatives, Greenfield explores corporations' claims to constitutional rights and the foundational conflicts about their obligations in society. He argues that a blanket opposition to corporate personhood is misguided, since it is consistent with both the purpose of corporations and the Constitution itself that corporations can claim rights at least some of the time. The problem with Citizens United is not that corporations have a right to speak, but for whom they speak. The solution is not to end corporate personhood but to require corporations to act more like citizens.

Leading scholars analyze key issues in fiduciary duties in business―one of the most salient applications of fiduciary law and theory.

The Corporate Director's Guidebook is recognized as the premier authority on the director's role and the board's functions. It is read, consulted and cited by board members, executives, lawyers and academics nationwide. Now available as a new Fifth Edition, the Guidebook completely updates its fourth edition published in 2004. This new Fifth Edition addresses recent effects the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has had in the corporate governance arena and its impact on the legal responsibilities of directors of public companies.

"This work covers the most important aspects of a director's duties and responsibilities." --p. ix.