Decoding the rights of companies in the Technocene: an introduction

This special issue examines the role of companies as rights-bearing actors in shaping planetary change. While anthropogenic climate change is commonly framed as the work of humanity, vast disparities in power mean that corporate entities have a disproportionate influence over emissions, political decision-making, and the global flow of biophysical resources. These asymmetries reshape not only climate but also Earth’s physical systems, prompting a reconsideration of the Anthropocene as a “Technocene,” driven by technological agency embodied in the modern company. Despite their autonomy, resources, and transformative capacity, companies remain underexamined in legal theory, often subsumed under “personhood” or treated as legal fictions. Existing debates focus on corporate obligations, neglecting the underexplored domain of corporate rights. This Special Issue of Transnational Legal Theory, originating from a workshop we convened at Lund University, interrogates the company as a legal subject, central to global governance and ecological transformation, and challenges prevailing human-centred accounts of law, politics, and the environment.