Book

This book tracks the phenomenon of international corporate personhood (ICP) in international law and explores many legal issues raised in its wake. It sketches a theory of the ICP and encourages engagement with its amorphous legal nature through reimagination of international law beyond the State, in service to humanity.

The book offers two primary contributions, one descriptive and one normative. The descriptive section of the book sketches a history of the emergence of the ICP and discusses existing analogical approaches to theorizing the corporation in international law. The normative section presents a theory of the ICP that – unlike existing attempts to place the corporation in international legal theory – does not rely on analogical reasoning. It suggests that ICPs should have ‘passive’ or procedural rights that cater to problems that can be characterized as ‘universal’ but that international law should avoid universalizing ‘active’ or substantive rights which ICPs can shape through agency.