Ownership of companies: The emergence and transformation of social corporate constitutions

The project assumes that the legal systems of most welfare states have given rise to certain forms of social corporate constitutions, which limit the property rights of corporate shareholders in order to protect workers (e.g., by granting them co-determination, ensuring that corporate decisions are governed by collective agreements, and giving them equity participation).

It draws a functional comparison of the legal systems of the United Kingdom, United States, Germany and France, exploring the legal structures that underpin workers’ influence on corporate decision-making processes.