Benefit Corporations : Trends and Perspectives

For those of us who, like Paul Valery, believe that, "nous entrons dans l’avenir à reculons", looking at the trends and prospective of a field of law (or even a simple legal phenomenon) means looking at its origins. In other words, we can only attempt to divine the future by contemplating and considering (in the etymological sense) the past and the present. This may be a short-sighted way of proceeding, but we see no alternative.This paper does not aim to discuss the legislative and non-legislative history of benefit corporations, B-Corps, società benefit, sociedades de beneficio e interés colectivo or sociétés à mission, whatever their national name and shades might be, as each section of this book analytically sets them out already, and as the history of the various forms of benefit corporations is, in itself, still rather short. On the other hand, we deem it useful to frame the recent and lively progression of the “benefit corporation phenomenon” (as we prefer to refer to it as a mere “phenomenon”, given its different shades in different legal systems) within the broader context of the generally renewed awareness on corporate purpose (or purpose of the company), shareholder welfare, shareholder theory, enlightened shareholder value, on corporate (or business) social responsibility, on the raison d'être, or on the interest of the company (or corporate interest), just to recall some of the most widely used slogans. Such timeless problems (related to those “watchwords” or “formulas”) have recently returned to the heart of the debate, as we can observe even at a simple glance to the international literature