This book examines the changing reciprocal relationships between corporations and their various social obligations over the very long term - from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Chapters from emerging and established business historians assess the full range of social obligations that...

Using archival material and underutilized printed sources this article provides an intellectual history of Milton Friedman’s critique of corporate social responsibility. This evidence demonstrates how his arguments developed within the context of ‘neoliberal’ discussion in Europe and the...

This paper reconstructs the history of the reform of Britain’s company laws during the 1850s and makes three major arguments. First, the Law Amendment Society was the driving force for reform and organized the campaign for change. Second, the advancement of working-class interests and ideas of...

This paper explores the history of corporate law through the Case of Sutton's Hospital. The case is among the oldest still-cited cases in Anglo-American corporate law and contains the oft-quoted definition that a corporation is “… invisible, immortal, and rests only in intendment of law."...