The Tobin Project Holds Panel Discussions on Corporations and American Democracy

On November 15th and 16th, the Tobin Project held events in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. to share and discuss key takeaways from our edited volume Corporations and American Democracy, recently published with Harvard University Press. The first book-length account of the corporation’s role in American politics from the Founding Era to the present, Corporations and American Democracy seeks to place the corporation in its historical context with the hope of informing scholarship, policy, and public discourse on corporate rights and responsibilities.

To reach a broad and diverse audience, the Tobin Project held panel discussions at the Brookings Institution, Georgetown Law School, and Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise. The panels covered topics ranging from corporate personhood to shifting approaches to corporate regulation and featured volume editors Naomi R. Lamoreaux (Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics & History, Yale University) and William J. Novak (Charles F. and Edith J. Clyne Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School), as well as volume contributors Margaret Blair (Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt Law School), Ajay Mehrotra (Executive Director, American Bar Foundation; Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law), and John Wallis (Professor of Economics, University of Maryland, College Park). A recording of our event with Brookings can be viewed here.

We were encouraged by the enthusiasm and thoughtful questions from audience members, including undergraduates, historians, working lawyers, and members of the general public, and we are eager to continue promoting the volume and sharing its insights on how corporations have shaped American history.