Session 1: Business Purpose and Benefit Corporations

There are divergent views on what the purpose of business is or should be the purpose of business and, while discussions have been in progress for a long time, their intensity and significance are increasing.  The reasons for this are that there is growing recognition of mounting problems in relation to the environmental, human, and social impacts of companies but little consensus about their causes and even less about their appropriate remedies. To some these problems reflect a deficiency of the design and enforcement of traditional tools of antitrust, regulation, and taxation. To others, conventional tools are not adequate, sufficient, or efficient means of dealing with the problems. Session 2 will discuss and contrast these different views.