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Full-Text Articles in Law

Religious Roots Of Corporate Organization, Amanda Porterfield Jan 2021

Religious Roots Of Corporate Organization, Amanda Porterfield

Seattle University Law Review

Religion and corporate organization have developed side-by-side in Western culture, from antiquity to the present day. This Essay begins with the realignment of religion and secularity in seventeenth-century America, then looks to the religious antecedents of corporate organization in ancient Rome and medieval Europe, and then looks forward to the modern history of corporate organization. This Essay describes the long history behind the entanglement of business and religion in the United States today. It also shows how an understanding of both religion and business can be expanded by looking at the economic aspects of religion and the religious aspects of …


“In Time Of Stress, A Civilization Pauses To Take Stock Of Itself”: Adolf A. Berle And The Modern Corporation From The New Era To 1933, Mark Hendrickson Feb 2019

“In Time Of Stress, A Civilization Pauses To Take Stock Of Itself”: Adolf A. Berle And The Modern Corporation From The New Era To 1933, Mark Hendrickson

Seattle University Law Review

This Article demonstrates three things. First, an examination of Berle’s work and thinking in this critical period reveals the ways in which public problems and the need to “know capitalism,” to borrow a phrase from Mary Furner, converged in the post-WWI era in remarkable and unprecedented ways that would shape New Deal and post-New Deal politics and policy. Berle’s gift for synthesizing evidence and constructing narratives that explained complex events were particularly well suited to this era that prized the expert. Second, identifying a problem and developing a persuasive narrative is one thing, but finding solutions is another. Berle joined …


The ‘Berle And Means Corporation’ In Historical Perspective, Eric Hilt Feb 2019

The ‘Berle And Means Corporation’ In Historical Perspective, Eric Hilt

Seattle University Law Review

This Article presents new evidence on the evolution of the business corporation in America and on the emergence of what is commonly termed the “Berle and Means corporation.” Drawing on a wide range of sources, I investigate three major historical claims of The Modern Corporation: that large corporations had displaced small ones by the early twentieth century; that the quasi-public corporations of the 1930s were much larger than the public corporations of the nineteenth century; and that ownership was separated from control to a much greater extent in the 1930s compared to the nineteenth century. I address each of these …


Berle And Corporation Finance: Everything Old Is New Again, Frank Partnoy Feb 2019

Berle And Corporation Finance: Everything Old Is New Again, Frank Partnoy

Seattle University Law Review

In this essay, I want to illustrate how Adolf A. Berle Jr.’s Studies in the Law of Corporation Finance1 was prescient about the kinds of financial innovation that are central to today’s markets. For scholars who are not familiar with this publication, Corporation Finance is a compilation of edited versions of several of Berle’s articles, along with some new material, most of which is focused on 1920s corporate practice. My primary goal here is simply to shine a light on this work and to memorialize for scholars the key passages that echo many of today’s challenges. The punch line of …


Adolf Berle During The New Deal: The Brain Truster As An Intellectual Jobber, Robert B. Thompson Feb 2019

Adolf Berle During The New Deal: The Brain Truster As An Intellectual Jobber, Robert B. Thompson

Seattle University Law Review

Adolf Berle’s ideas have attained a remarkable longevity in corporate law with an influence exceeding that of any other twentieth century law professor. Participants in the now ten Berle symposia often have framed the discussion of his career as an intellectual history, usually built around the powerful transformative effect of The Modern Corporation and Private Property (MCPP). Yet this approach is insufficient to explain large parts of Berle’s professional career, including what Berle did during the twelve years of the Roosevelt Administration that immediately followed MCPP. This Article offers an alternative focus that better accounts for the career of an …


The History Of Team Production Theory, Ron Harris Jan 2015

The History Of Team Production Theory, Ron Harris

Seattle University Law Review

In this short Essay, the author consider the team production theory developed by Margaret Blair and Lynn Stout1 from a historical perspective, in three senses. First, does the theory fit the historical use of the corporate form? Second, can it explain the development of corporation law doctrines? And third, can we place the development of the theory as such into the intellectual history of corporation theories at large? The author will state my bottom line up front: while the Article finds the team production theory insightful and useful for my historical research, for teaching corporation law, and for thinking about …


Looking Back In Time: Sixteenth Century Wherefores And Therefores As Part Of The Continuum Of Western Legal Thought, George T. Anagnost, Richard C. Jensen Jan 1994

Looking Back In Time: Sixteenth Century Wherefores And Therefores As Part Of The Continuum Of Western Legal Thought, George T. Anagnost, Richard C. Jensen

Seattle University Law Review

Surrounded with the conveniences of a word processor, form book, and facsimile machine, the modern-day attorney might be tempted to equate the advent of sophisticated commercial transactions with the advent of the electronic age. Just as form follows function, it seems only logical to assume that the use of lengthy, carefully-drafted agreements is reflective of successive generations of sharper, more knowledgeable business clients. Curiously, however, the lesson that history teaches us is different. Looking back in time to the year 1511 at a proposal for the sale of alum between the City of Venice and a banker from Rome, one …


History Of The University Of Puget Sound School Of Law, Anita M. Steele Jan 1989

History Of The University Of Puget Sound School Of Law, Anita M. Steele

Seattle University Law Review

This essay presents the history of the University of Puget Sound School of Law. Founded in 1972, the law school is a relatively young institution, still in its teens. Its gestation period, however, extends back at least sixty years. As long ago as 1912, prominent Tacoma attorneys proposed to found a law school associated with the University of Puget Sound (UPS). In the ensuing years, officials at UPS periodically raised the issue of creating a law school. Various studies were undertaken, but it was not until the late 1960s that a school of law was considered again as seriously as …


Statutory Compilations Of Washington, Kelly Kunsch Jan 1989

Statutory Compilations Of Washington, Kelly Kunsch

Seattle University Law Review

This Article surveys the statutory compilations of Washington. Although Washington's laws have evolved through a gradual process, compilations of these laws have had a more sporadic development. This development culminated in the Revised Code of Washington (RCW), which has remained relatively uniform since its first publication in 1951. Still, familiarity with its antecedents remains important today.