In a non-binding aside in a 17th century opinion (Case of Sutton’s Hospital), Lord Coke wrote , “[Corporations] cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed nor excommunicate, for they have no souls.” Since that time, thousands of scribblers have cited this dictum to argue that corporations are amoral entities, having no moral responsibility whatsoever. This false idea has been repeatedly rejected by numerous authors, including Clarence Birdseye, inventor of frozen vegetables, in a 1915: “Have Corporations Moral Natures?”
Beginning in 1984, Peter French published a series of books that demonstrated the fallacy of seeing only individual morality in a world filled with corporate actors. (See, e.g., Peter A. French, Jeffrey Nesteruk, and David T. Risser, Corporations in the Moral Community (New York: Harcourt Brace Javanovich, 1992); Peter A. French, Collective and Corporate Responsibility (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984).) Hundreds of books and articles have addressed Corporate Social Responsibility in the for-profit business world. (See, e.g., William Frederick, Corporation Be Good! The Story of Corporate Social Responsibility (Indianapolis: Dog Ear Publishing, 2006.)
The corporate world itself has taken on the task of articulating the moral principles of corporate agency and developed codes of conduct and other resources to guide the decisions and behavior of boards, executives, managers, and other employees. (See, e.g., Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.)
The topic of corporations as moral agents is now the subject of an entire section in the Financial Times. They call it Moral Money. It is a daily investigation of the rubber-meets-the-road challenges of assuring that corporations do the right thing, including an articulation of what doing the right thing means in the context of financing and managing and governing corporations.
Writing 400 years ago at the dawn of the corporatization of the economy, Lord Coke got it wrong. Corporations can commit treason (and other crimes); and they can be outlawed (subjected to criminal prosecution). A society in which corporate entities could not be held responsible would break down.
In a small book with the title The Morally Responsible College I presented the case for taking moral agency seriously in academic institutions.
In this section of the website I seek to expand on that argument by assembling more resources and comments on the broad theme of moral corporations. Please join the conversation.