This chapter begins with a discussion of public corporations, covering the uses of corporate personality, legal status and liability, and relevance in administrative law. It then describes the mechanisms of privatization and nationalization, the changing nature of regulation, and some regulatory mechanisms, including the regulation of commerce, financial services, and public utilities.
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Sir William Wade and Christopher Forsyth
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M P Furmston
This chapter examines the law governing contracts made by minors, or by persons who are mentally afflicted or drunk. It also considers the present position of corporations, who make contracts outside the limits set out in the formative document.
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This chapter places trusts in their contemporary social, economic, legal, and international context. It first discusses their significance to the world outside the lawyer’s office, and shows that they play an important social and economic role in the lives of ordinary people. The trust operates in key areas such as home, employment, and commerce. The chapter also examines the trust in the context of laws, focusing on how it corresponds to, and coexists with, other legal ideas such as contract, debt, powers, gift, agency, bailment, tax, and corporation, and concludes by looking at the international and comparative dimension of the trust.
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Jack Beatson, Andrew Burrows, and John Cartwright
This chapter discusses the grounds of contractual incapacity. It considers contracts made with the Crown and public authorities; corporations and incorporated associations; minors; and persons lacking mental capacity and drunken persons.
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Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter discusses the liability of parties who participate in the criminal acts of others. Liability can be split into four parts: those who are accessories, those who are joint perpetrators, those who are vicariously liable, and those who are corporations. Accessories are those who aid, abet, counsel, or procure the commission of the principal offence. Participants who enter a joint venture (also known as a joint unlawful enterprise) are liable for the crimes committed as part of that venture, unless one of the parties deliberately departs from the agreed plan. The doctrine of vicarious liability has a (limited) role in the criminal law. A corporation is a legal person, so criminal liability can be imposed on a corporation for many (although not all) crimes.
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This chapter deals with the corporation tax system, which determines the tax liability of companies. It discusses the calculation of profits; tax assessment; relief for trade losses; and taxation of close companies.
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Course-focused and comprehensive, the Textbook on series provide an accessible overview of the key areas on the law curriculum.
International law deals primarily with the rights and duties of states, but has increasingly become concerned with the rights and duties of non-state actors in the international arena. These non-state actors now play an important role in international relations and influence the development and application of international law. They range from individuals to ethnic groups, international organisations such as the United Nations, pre-independent territorial entities, and multinational corporations. This chapter examines the concepts of personality, statehood, and recognition in international law. It discusses some of the problems arising in international and national law in the context of recognition of foreign states, governments, and international organisations. It also reflects on the constitutive theory of international personality and the effects of non-recognition in the United Kingdom.
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Andrew Clapham
This chapter first explains how the term ‘non-state actor’ is used and why it is appropriate to look at the impact of non-state actors on the enjoyment of human rights, and then recalls the ‘positive obligations’ of states to protect those within their jurisdiction from abuses by non-state actors. Finally, it considers the human rights obligations of different non-state actors: international organizations, corporations, and armed non-state actors. The chapter identifies three challenges posed by non-state actors. First, is finding ways to translate existing norms to create appropriate obligations for non-state actors; second is developing monitoring and accountability mechanisms; and third is questioning assumptions about what it means to talk about human rights and who has human rights obligations.
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This chapter deals with the corporation tax system, which determines the tax liability of companies. It discusses the calculation of profits; tax assessment; relief for trade losses; and taxation of close companies.
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This chapter turns to some of the environmental rights and obligations which attach to individuals, corporations, and NGOs in international law. The chapter considers some alternative approaches to the implementation and enforcement of international environmental law. Relying less on interstate claims, or on mechanisms of international supervision, the development of human-rights approaches to environmental protection and the economic logic of the polluter-pays principle have made claims by individuals an increasingly attractive means of dealing with domestic or transboundary environmental problems. But the diversity of the issues needs emphasis in this context also. National remedies are not necessarily alternatives to the systems considered in the last chapter, but are more often complementary to it, and only in certain respects more useful. The variety of approaches now available for the resolution of international environmental disputes does indicate the increasing sophistication of the international legal system, the chapter argues.
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Andrew Clapham
It is increasingly recognized that human rights law has to address the challenge posed by non-state actors. This chapter starts with a reflection on how the term ‘non-state actor’ is used and why it is appropriate to look at the contemporary impact of non-state actors on the enjoyment of human rights. It then recalls the positive obligations of states to protect those within their jurisdiction and elsewhere from abuses by non-state actors and how states provide for redress at the national level. In the next part, it considers the human rights obligations of different non-state actors: international organizations, corporations, and armed non-state actors.
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Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter discusses the liability of parties who participate in the criminal acts of others. Liability can be split into four parts: those who are accessories, those who are joint perpetrators, those who are vicariously liable, and those who are corporations. Accessories are those who aid, abet, counsel, or procure the commission of the principal offence. Participants who enter a joint venture (also known as a joint unlawful enterprise) are liable for the crimes committed as part of that venture, unless one of the parties deliberately departs from the agreed plan. The doctrine of vicarious liability has a (limited) role in the criminal law. A corporation is a legal person, so criminal liability can be imposed on a corporation for many (although not all) crimes.
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This chapter considers corporate management and focuses on the regulation of those who govern the company, and the protection of the shareholders, who have no automatic right of management. The actual ‘running’ of the company is left to the directors, a relatively small number of persons who may take individual responsibility for aspects of the company’s business or may oversee the company as a whole. Directors have significant powers when acting for the company, and whilst a corporation possesses its own separate legal personality, independent of those who manage it, the actions of the company are performed, under authority provided by statute and the company’s constitution, by its directors. The chapter identifies the appointment of directors and their duties as codified from the common law into the Companies Act (CA) 2006, and the provisions for removing a director.
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This chapter evaluates the idea of ‘social harm’, considering whether we should think of it as being separate from, or related to, what we have previously thought of as ‘criminology’. It begins by examining what social harm is, and the many criticisms that its proponents make of traditional interpretations of ‘crime’ and ‘criminology’. The social harm approach, a perspective that has become increasingly prominent over the past two decades, argues that state-generated, legal definitions of ‘crime’ are much too narrow, as they do not reflect significant (though not always illegal) social, physical, emotional, psychological, cultural, and financial and economic harms that can be inflicted by social structures, multinational bodies, and the state. So far, much of the work in this area has focused on broader theoretical and conceptual issues, but social harm perspectives have also informed important studies of a wide range of social occurrences and events. These have ranged from studies of the harm caused by corporations, human trafficking, genocide, austerity measures, intimate partner violence, and penal harm.
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This chapter on subjects of international law discusses established legal persons and special types of personality. Established legal persons cover states, entities legally proximate to states, entities recognized as belligerents, international administration of territories prior to independence, international organizations, and individuals. Special types of personality cover public and private corporations, non-self-governing peoples, and entities sui generis.
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This chapter look towards the future agenda for international human rights and provides an overview of issues that are likely to characterize the evolution of international human rights. Whilst States remain the primary obligees, required to take all necessary measures to respect, promote, and protect human rights in fulfilment of their treaty obligations, a number of other entities are increasingly powerful and influential. Securing their support for advancing human rights is important, as is ensuring that such entities act in accordance with human rights and can be held to account for violating actions. This chapter considers non-State actors, including non-State armed groups and businesses. The roles of international organizations when engaged in activities in other States and non-governmental organizations are considered briefly.
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Titles in the Core Text series take the reader straight to the heart of the subject, providing focused, concise, and reliable guides for students at all levels. This chapter looks at history and theory associated with corporate governance. It first considers Berle and Means’ concern about the separation of ownership from control, particularly managers’ lack of accountability not only to investors but also to society in general. It then traces the emergence of the Berle and Means corporation and examines major influences on corporate theory, citing concession theory, fiction theory, corporate realism, and aggregate theory. It also discusses economic theories that have influenced scholarship on corporate law.
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This chapter examines the meaning of international legal personality and the range of actors that possess such personality, namely States, international organizations, individuals, multinational corporations, and several other non-State actors. Given the centrality of States, the criteria for statehood are analysed, and both traditional and contemporary criteria are discussed. Article 1 of the 1933 Montevideo Convention is used for assessment of whether an entity satisfies these criteria which include: permanent population, a defined territory, government, capacity to enter into foreign relations, and the relevance of human rights. Competing theories regarding the role of recognition by third States as an element of statehood are also considered. Equally, the rights and duties of non-State actors are analysed in terms of capacity conferred upon them under international law.
Chapter
Titles in the Core Text series take the reader straight to the heart of the subject, providing focused, concise, and reliable guides for students at all levels. This chapter looks at history and theory associated with corporate governance. It first considers Berle and Means’ concern about the separation of ownership from control, particularly managers’ lack of accountability not only to investors but also to society in general. It then traces the emergence of the Berle and Means corporation and examines major influences on corporate theory, citing concession theory, fiction theory, corporate realism, and aggregate theory. It also discusses economic theories that have influenced scholarship on corporate law.
Chapter
This chapter examines the meaning of international legal personality and the range of actors that possess such personality; namely, States, international organizations, individuals, multinational corporations, and several other non-State actors. Given the centrality of States, the criteria for statehood are analysed, and both traditional and contemporary criteria are discussed. Article 1 of the 1933 Montevideo Convention is used for assessment of whether an entity satisfies these criteria, which include: permanent population, a defined territory, government, capacity to enter into foreign relations, and the relevance of human rights. Competing theories regarding the role of recognition by third States as an element of statehood are also considered. Equally, the rights and duties of non-State actors are analysed in terms of capacity conferred upon them under international law.
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