Hiding the machine: stories, rights and the naturalisation of corporate technology

This paper tells two stories about corporations. The first story can be called ‘the nexus of contracts’ story, the second, ‘the entrepreneur’ story. Each of these stories was developed and refined by different groups of scholars over specific periods of time and responded to growing concerns about the size and power of corporations, concerns which motivated calls for greater regulation. These stories responded to these concerns by an impressive feat of prestidigitation: each of these stories made the company disappear. These stories about companies work in tandem with corresponding stories about the rights of companies. The former work as shields, which can be deployed in a range of policy spaces to counter calls for greater control over the power of corporations. The latter work as swords – the rights stories allow corporations to challenge restrictions on the exercise of their power, without foregrounding the corporation as the subject of those rights.