The Corporation, Law and Capitalism: A Radical Perspective on the Role of Law in the Global Political Economy
by Grietje Baars (Author)

About the Author
Grietje Baars is a Senior Lecturer in Law at City, University of London. They have published widely on Marxist theory of law, and co-edited (with Andre Spicer) The Corporation, A Critical, Multidisciplinary Handbook (CUP, 2017).

About this book
In The Corporation, Law and Capitalism, Baars offers a radical Marxist perspective on law, tracing the corporation from colonial times to the present multinational. ‘Corporate accountability’ is shown to be a red herring in the struggle for another world.

Brief contents
1 Introduction: ‘Das Kapital, das immer dahinter steckt’ 1
    1 Introduction 1
    2 Theoretical Framework 16
    3 ‘Developing the Form on the Basis of the Fundamental Form’ 19
    4 Beyond ‘Nebulous Left Functionalism’: Further Considerations on Marxism and Law 24
    5 Conclusion 30
2 The Roots, Development, and Context of the Legal Concept of the Corporation: the Making of a Structure of Irresponsibility and a Tool of Imperialism 31
    1 Introduction to Chapter 2 31
    2A The ‘Back Story’ of the Legal Concept of the Business Company 33
        1 Introduction to 2A 33
        2 Epistemology of the Corporate Legal Form 35
        3 The Creation of Market Society: Legal Relations and Legal Entities 43
        4 From the Joint Stock Corporation to the MNC 58
        5 Conclusion to 2A 74
    2B The Corporation and the Political Economy of International Law 76
        1 Introduction: The Corporation and Capitalism in International Law 76
        2 Corporations, Law and Capitalism 88
        3 Corporations in IL in the Twentieth Century 104
        4 Class Law and Class Struggle in IL 124
        5 Conclusion to 2B 127
        6 Afterword to Chapter 2: the Modern Corporation and Criminal Law 131
3 Capitalism’s Victors’ Justice? The Economics of World War Two, the Allies’ Trials of the German Industrialists and Their Treatment of the Japanese zaibatsu 133
    1 Introduction to Chapter 3 133
    3A Germany: The Nuremberg International Military Tribunal, or, the Theatre of Law 135
        1 Introduction to 3A 135
        2 From War to Trials: Why ‘Nuremberg’? 140
        3 The US Occupation and Economic Reform of Germany 145
        4 Nuremberg: Political Demands Translated into Law 146
        5 The Turnaround: from Germany is Our Problem to Germany is Our Business 155
        6 The Trials of the Industrialists: from Morality Play to Theatre ofthe Absurd 158
        7 Industrialists in Other Zonal Trials 185
        8 Aftermath: The warm bosom of the Western powers, the Churchill and McCloy clemencies, McCarthyism and the rebuilding of West Germany 194
        9 Conclusion to 3A 197
    3B Japan: the Tokyo International Military Tribunal, or, How the East Was Won 199
        1 Introduction to 3B 199
        2 Why Tokyo? 203
        3 The US Occupation and Economic Reform of Japan 206
        4 The International Military Tribunal for the Far East 209
        5 Economic Occupation Policy: zaibatsu Dissolution and the ‘Reverse Course’ 232
        6 Conclusion to Chapter 3: Capitalism’s Victors’ Justice 236
4 Remaking ICL: Removing Businessmen and Inserting Legal Persons as Subjects 239
    1 Introduction to Chapter 4 239
    4A The (Re-)Making of ICL: Lawyers Congealing Capitalism 243
        1 Introduction to 4A: Constructing ICL’s Foundational Ideology 243
        2 ICL Ideology, Pre-fab Critiques and Foreclosed Critiques 253
        3 An Alternative Foundational Narrative for ICL 263
        4 Conclusion to 4A 265
    4B ‘No Soul to Damn and No Body to Kick’? Attribution, Perpetration and Mens Rea in Business 265
        1 Introduction to 4B 265
        2 ‘No soul to damn and no body to kick’? Attribution, Perpetration and mens rea in Business 268
        3 Direct (Individual) Perpetration 270
        4 Co-perpetration and Joint Criminal Enterprise 271
        5 ‘Complicity’, Aiding and Abetting 273
        6 Command and Other Superior Responsibility 275
        7 Perpetration through an Organisation? 276
        8 Contextual Elements and Gravity 278
        9 Conclusion to 4B: so Many Men, so Many Modes 280
    4C Re-Making ICL: Who Wants to Be an International Criminal? Casting Business in Contemporary ICL 282
        1 Introduction to 4C 282
        2 The ‘New ICL’ and Re-opening the Debate on Collective Liability 286
        3 ‘De-Individualising ICL’: towards Legal Person Liability? 288
        4 From Theory to Practice: Recent Developments 298
        5 Conclusion to 4C 306
        6 Conclusion to Chapter 4: Who Let the Dogmatisierung out? 307
5 Contemporary Schreibtischtäter: Drinking from the Poisoned Chalice? 309
    1 Introduction 309
    2 The Balkans and the ICTY 311
    3 International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda 314
    4 Special Court for Sierra Leone 323
    5 The ICC 326
    6 Alternative Ways of Dealing with Business in Conflict 328
    7 ICL on the Domestic Level 331
    8 Host State Cases 336
    9 Conclusion 339
6 Corporate Imperialism 3.0: from the Dutch East India Company to the American South Asia Company 343
    1 Introduction: Corporate Imperialism 3.0: the American South Asia Company 343
    2 The Story so far … 346
    3 The Creation of the Corporate Soul: Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Social Responsibility as the ‘Last Maginot Line of Capitalism’ 352
    4 Legalised CSR, CA Cause Lawyering and Corporate ICL Problematised 365
    5 Consciousness-Building and the Seed of the New 378
Appendix A 381
Appendix B 382
Appendix C 389
Appendix D 391
Appendix E 393
Appendix F 398
References 400
Index 483

Series: Historical Materialism Book (Book 188)
Pages: 520
Publisher: BRILL (March 14, 2019)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9004297073
ISBN-13: 978-9004297074