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- Title
Corporate Rights to Free Speech?
- Authors
Stoll, Mary Lyn
- Abstract
Although the courts have ruled that companies are legal persons, they have not yet made clear the extent to which political free speech for corporations is limited by the strictures legitimately placed upon corporate commercial speech. I explore the question of whether or not companies can properly be said to have the right to civil free speech or whether corporate speech is always de facto commercial speech not subject to the same sorts of legal protections as is the right to civil free speech. In the absence of clearly defined legal precedent, I emphasize moral reasons for determining the appropriate limits of corporate civil free speech. Appealing to arguments typically used to justify individual rights to civil free speech, I examine the extent to which this sort of justification may or may not be legitimately extended to corporations. I conclude that corporate rights to civil free speech must be restricted because granting rights of free speech to institutions may, in practice, undermine the moral rationale and practical feasibility of guaranteeing rights of civil free speech to individuals. Furthermore, I argue that granting corporations full rights to civil free speech will undercut attempts to develop good moral character in corporate institutions by undermining the efforts of watchdog organizations.
- Subjects
COMMERCIAL speech; SPEECH -- Law &; legislation; FREEDOM of speech; COMMERCIAL law; BUSINESS communication laws; MORAL development; WHISTLEBLOWING &; ethics; CORPORATION law; CONFLICT of laws; CORPORATE communications; JURISTIC persons
- Publication
Journal of Business Ethics, 2005, Vol 58, Issue 1-3, p261
- ISSN
0167-4544
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s10551-005-1420-9