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32 L. & Critique 1 (2021)

handle is hein.journals/lwcrtq32 and id is 1 raw text is: Law and Critique (2021) 32:1-32 https://doi.org/1 0.1007/s10978-020-09267-7 Corporate Law Versus Social Autonomy: Law as Social Hazard Michael Galanis' Published online: 26 May 2020 ©The Author(s) 2020 Abstract This article argues that corporate law has become the legal platform upon which is erected a social process impeding society's capacity to lucidly reflect on its pri- mary ends; in this sense, corporate law is in conflict with social autonomy. This process is described here as a social feedback loop, in the structural centre of which lies the corporation which imposes its own purpose as an irrational social end, i.e. irrespective of its potentially catastrophic social consequences. The article argues that resolving the conflict between corporate law and social autonomy is impossible, because it presupposes a change of social paradigm towards one where corporate law as business organisation law has no obvious fit. This questions the social legiti- macy of corporate law, signifies its non-permanence and thus opens up the field for seeking radical alternatives in the future. Keywords Bureaucracy - Capitalism - Corporate law - Managerialism - Social autonomy Part 1. Introduction Even the keenest 'black-letter' admirer of existing laws would accept that social institutions ought to be open to change, in order to adapt to evolving social goals. However, adaptation is not always possible or at least as straightforward in practice, so that even radical action, such as the recent response to the coronavirus pandemic, may not have a lasting effect or may even exacerbate social hazards. Social insti- tutions and their users can function as forces of inertia, so that society is unable E Michael Galanis michael.galanis @manchester.ac.uk School of Law, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK I_) Springer

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