If corporations are people, can we draft them?
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by Michael Froomkin
Laurie Silvers & Mitchell Rubenstein Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Miami School of Law
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As it doesn’t maximize profits, don’t they have a conscientious objection?
I believe that a close reading of economic policy during world war 2 might reveal that the government had effectively drafted corporations for its wartime objectives.
I’m not so sure about any other period in American history.
It seems to me the more important question is whether they can be sent to jail. When a corporation commits a crime that would get N years in jail for a person, shouldn’t it be fined N years of profits (or perhaps 0.1*N*revenue)?
One side effect of such a rule is that it would provide an incentive for keeping corporations small (a large corporation being more likely to break the law).
I wish we could
They can’t be sent to jail, but can be sued
Sure why not?
Corporations, like families, are made up of people, and the representative who would be voting on behalf of the corporation is already voting in the corporation’s interest when they hit the ballot box.
I believe, they could be.