Synopsis
This original book looks methodically at corporate law, corporate governance, and judicial practice from the perspective of social theory. Sciulli explores whether there are identifiable limits - legal or normative - to corporate power in any democratic society; when the corporate judiciary in the United States maintains those limits, despite the pressures of intensifying global economic competition; and when the judiciary drifts, as an institution, away from bearing this responsibility. Assessing both the promise and the limits of the new institutional approach to the sociology of organizations, Sciulli considers the influence of England's Chancery Courts in the United States, especially with regard to private power in civil society. His study, moving from the eighteenth century to the present, provides a comprehensive analysis of corporate power and judicial restraints.
Booknews
Offers a historical study of the corporate judiciary, designed to advance the institutional approach to organizations both in substance and at a conceptual level. Draws attention to the importance of the US corporate judiciary as an environmental agent, maintaining existing normative mediations on corporate power, and highlights the importance of distinguishing intermediary associations from the larger category of organizations. For sociologists and legal scholars. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.