Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-06T00:30:10.989Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Review Essay - Corporate Law Matters. On Kent Greenfield's The Failure of Corporate Law: Fundamental Flaws and Progressive Possibilities (2006) - [Kent Greenfield, The Failure of Corporate Law: Fundamental Flaws and Progressive Possibilities, Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 2006. ISBN 0–226-30693-3, 288 pp., $52.68 CAD]

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Abstract

Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Developments
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

1 Kent Greenfield, The Failure of Corporate Law: Fundamental Flaws and Progressive Possibilities, (2006) at 8. [Greenfield]Google Scholar

2 Id., 142 and 146.Google Scholar

3 Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905).Google Scholar

4 See e.g. Cohen, Morris, The Basis of Contract, 46 Harvard Law Review 553 (1933).Google Scholar

5 Michael J. Trebilcock, The Limits of Freedom of Contract (1993) at 17.Google Scholar

6 Brownsword, Roger, Review: The Limits of Freedom of Contract and the Limits of Contract Theory, 22 Journal of Law and Society (1995) 259 at 268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Hale, Robert L., Bargaining, Duress and Economic Liberty, 43 Columbia Law Review (1943) 603 at 604.Google Scholar

8 Easterbrook, Frank H. & Fischel, Daniel R., The Corporate Contract in The Economic Structure of Corporate Law 1 (1991) at 37. [Easterbrook & Fischel]Google Scholar

9 Williamson, Oliver E., The Modern Corporation: Origins, Evolution, Attributes, 19 Journal of Economic Literature 1537 (1981) at 1537.Google Scholar

10 Easterbrook & Fischel, supra, note 8, 32.Google Scholar

11 Hansmann, Henry & Kraakman, Reinier, The End of History for Corporate Law, 89 Georgetown Law Journal 439 (2001). [Hansmann & Kraakman]Google Scholar

12 Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage (Peter A. Hall & David Soskice eds., 2001).Google Scholar

13 Hansmann & Kraakman, supra, note 11.Google Scholar

14 Adolf A. Berle and Gardiner C. Means, The Modern Corporation and Private Property (1932).Google Scholar

15 See supra, note 11 at 447; also see Margaret M. Blair & Lynn A Stout, A Team Production Theory of Corporate Law, 85 Virginia Law Review 247 (1999).Google Scholar

16 Hansmann & Kraakman, supra, note 11, 448.Google Scholar

17 Id. 441.Google Scholar

18 Greenfield, supra, note 1, 22.Google Scholar

19 Id., 38.Google Scholar

21 Id., 31.Google Scholar

22 Id., 126.Google Scholar

23 Id., 129.Google Scholar

24 Id., 130.Google Scholar

25 It is not clear what room Greenfield sees for charities, many of which are incorporated but do not create financial prosperity.Google Scholar

26 Greenfield, supra, note 1,133.Google Scholar

27 Id., 38.Google Scholar

28 Id., 134.Google Scholar

29 Id., 26.Google Scholar

30 Joseph A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942).Google Scholar

31 Greenfield, supra, note 1, 50.Google Scholar

32 Id., 52.Google Scholar

33 Id., 54.Google Scholar

34 Nicholls, Christopher C., Governance, Mergers and Acquisitions, and Global Capital Markets, in Corporate Governance in Global Capital Markets, 85, 90 (Janis P. Sarra, ed, 2004).Google Scholar

35 Greenfield, supra, note 1, 56.Google Scholar

36 See e.g., Macaulay, Stewart, Non-Contractual Relations in Business: A Preliminary Study, 28 American Sociological Review 1 (1963).Google Scholar

37 Greenfield, supra, note 1, 60. While he doesn't dispute the existence of a fiduciary duty, he does question why it is a characteristic that has been built into corporate law, rather than being explicitly contracted for by the parties.Google Scholar

38 Greenfield, supra, note 1, 66.Google Scholar

39 Id., 26.Google Scholar

40 Id.,136.Google Scholar

41 Id., 150.Google Scholar

42 Id., 139.Google Scholar

44 Id.141.Google Scholar

45 Id. 32.Google Scholar

46 Id. 154.Google Scholar

47 Id.,142.Google Scholar

48 Blair, Margaret M. & Stout, Lynn A, A Team Production Theory of Corporate Law, 85 Virginia Law Review 247 (1999).Google Scholar

49 Greenfield, supra, note 1, 146.Google Scholar

50 Id., 150.Google Scholar

51 Mace, Myles L., Directors: Myth and Reality – Ten Years Later, 32 Rutgers Law Review 293 (1979).Google Scholar

52 Mary G. Condon, Anita I. Anand & Janis P. Sarra, Securities Law in Canada: Cases and Commentary (2005).Google Scholar

53 See, supra, note 1 at 127.Google Scholar