Sustainability, Justice and Corporate Law: Redistributing Corporate Rights and Duties to Meet the Challenge of Sustainability

Sustainability is the main challenge for humanity. The current climate crisis and growing inequality are both the direct consequence of human choices and activities, particularly through the corporation. Addressing these challenges requires clarity on what we mean by sustainability and justice and precisely how the corporation contributes to the situation. Both sustainability and justice have geographic and time dimensions. Law, however, is limited because it is largely jurisdictionally based and corporate law is heavily short-term orientated. This set of circumstances creates an imperative to consider how the issue can be resolved including changes to the long-standing institutions of corporate law. This paper considers the sustainability challenges and places them in the context of justice. It argues for corporate reforms of board and shareholder structures such that rights and duties are redistributed to parties with greater interests in sustainability and justice. It then explores how that could be done and the corporation re-normed to better serve society.