If corporations are people, can we draft them?
A Personal Blog
by Michael Froomkin
Laurie Silvers & Mitchell Rubenstein Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Miami School of Law
My Publications | e-mail
All opinions on this blog are those of the author(s) and not their employer(s) unelss otherwise specified.
Who Reads Discourse.net?
Readers describe themselves.
Please join in.Reader Map
Recent Bluessky Posts- I think that was the Moderns, right? (As opposed to the Ancients, or the Middle-English....) August 18, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- I'm guessing this isn't aimed at law school faculty? It seems to assume undergraduate teaching.... August 18, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- Still on 6. Nervously eyeing the coming end of security patches in October. August 18, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- How bad do things have to get before we decide the circumstances justify it? Are we not at an all-hands-on-deck moment already? August 17, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- Still down. Now saying after 6pm. Phone hotspot is awful slow... August 17, 2026 Michael Froomkin
Recent Comments
Subscribe to Blog via Email
Join 53 other subscribers
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.