Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2008

Abstract

In this essay, which was delivered as the Torys Lecture at the University of Toronto, Vice Chancellor Strine considers the implications of globalization for the effective regulation of corporate behavior affecting interests other than those of stockholders against the backdrop of the West’s political and economic experience. He concludes that consistent with prior experience, the globalization of corporate markets will require a corresponding expansion of the polity to protect those aspects of human freedom that are affected in important ways by corporate behavior. As a practical matter, this means that if the U.S. and other Western nations wish to limit the ability of corporations to generate externalities and impair rights the West has embraced as important to individuals’ ability to lead the good life, they will have to give up some of their sovereignty to international institutions in exchange for regulation that is co-extensive with the sphere in which corporations conduct their activities.

Keywords

Corporate governance, Shareholders, Labor, Managers, Globalization, Corporate social responsibility, CSR, Shareholder value, Accountability, Sovereignty, International regulation, Economic liberty, New Deal, Externalities, Regulatory arbitrage, International norms and cooperation

Publication Title

University of Toronto Law Journal

Publication Citation

58 U. Toronto L. J. 241 (2008)

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