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Full-Text Articles in Law
Corporate "Human Rights" To Intellectual Property Protection?, J. Janewa Oseitutu
Corporate "Human Rights" To Intellectual Property Protection?, J. Janewa Oseitutu
Faculty Publications
The global intellectual property system protects the interests of intellectual property owners, sometimes to the detriment of competing interests like public health or access to knowledge. Some scholars have proposed a human rights framework for intellectual property as a way to inject balance into the current system. However, the assertion that human rights will bring balance is often coupled with the assumption that corporations are, by definition, excluded from human rights-based intellectual property claims. Yet, corporations have used, and are likely to continue to use, human rights law to ground their intellectual property claims. Since multinational corporations were a major …
New Corporate Forms And Green Business, Antony Page
New Corporate Forms And Green Business, Antony Page
Faculty Publications
You want to start a business: not just an ordinary business, producing ordinary social benefit, but a dual-mission business that will both make a profit and benefit the environment. This green business, you expect, will sometimes face trade-offs between the missions, in the sense that sometimes owners' wealth and profit will have to be sacrificed to pursue environmental benefits. You're optimistic, in that you hope the business will find outside investors and will scale up easily. Moreover, you don't want to lie or even dissemble about your motives or about the business's actions. You want to be both authentic and …
Is Social Enterprise The New Corporate Social Responsibility?, Antony Page, Robert A. Katz
Is Social Enterprise The New Corporate Social Responsibility?, Antony Page, Robert A. Katz
Faculty Publications
Since at least the famous Berle-Dodds debate, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and later its more muscular and structural iteration, progressive corporate law, have been discussed without much progress. The authors consider whether the social enterprise movement, which envisions a new sector of businesses created both to generate profits and pursue social goals, advances this debate. They conclude that it does. Proponents of social enterprise believe that such businesses can combine the dynamism of for-profit firms with the mission-driven zeal more typical of nonprofit organizations. Social enterprise and CSR have much in common: both want businesses to take the interests of …
The Role Of Social Enterprise, Robert A. Katz, Antony Page
The Role Of Social Enterprise, Robert A. Katz, Antony Page
Faculty Publications
A social enterprise operates a business in a manner intended to increase social welfare more than conventional businesses in the same sector. This notion of “social enterprise” was pioneered by nonprofit organizations seeking to advance their charitable missions through revenue-generating commercial activity, instead of relying on charitable donations. With increasing frequency the term is applied to for-profit business ventures whose founders seek to both address social problems while also generating acceptable returns for owner-investors. The article examines the notion of for-profit social enterprise, and explains how such entities may better achieve social goals than nonprofits engaged in revenue-generating commercial activity, …
Freezing Out Ben & Jerry: Corporate Law And The Sale Of A Social Enterprise Icon, Antony Page, Robert A. Katz
Freezing Out Ben & Jerry: Corporate Law And The Sale Of A Social Enterprise Icon, Antony Page, Robert A. Katz
Faculty Publications
Companies with social missions are frequently bought by larger, more conventional profit-seeking firms and just as frequently accused of “selling out.” Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. is perhaps the leading example: its takeover by international conglomerate Unilever is an oft-repeated cautionary tale of the negative proclivities of the publicly-traded corporate form and profit-maximizing corporate law. Contrary to conventional wisdom, however, corporate law did not compel the sale, or sell-out, of Ben & Jerry’s. This familiar account omits a critical part of the narrative -- the company and its founders had established impressive anti-takeover defenses that, when pressed, the board declined …