The Reality of Shareholder Ownership: For-profit Corporations as Slaves

What is the relationship between shareholders and the corporation? The present scholarly consensus is that, whatever the relationship is, it is not one of owner and owned. This article contests that consensus. It argues that corporations are owned by their shareholders and, further, that corporations so-owned are slaves. In support of this contention, the Roman law of slavery is brought to bear as an important point of comparison, with various startling similarities between Roman slaves and for-profit corporations highlighted and drawn upon. The significance of identifying the for-profit corporation as a slave is that it provides a novel explanation for why corporations pathologically maximise profits. Further, by implication, it yields a proposal for addressing this problematic behaviour – that is, that for-profit corporations ought to be freed from their enslavement. The article has three substantive sections. The first discusses corporate personhood; the second corporate ownership; and the third free corporations.