Marxism, the market, and corporate responsibility : a comment on Paddy Ireland

Campbell, David (2010) Marxism, the market, and corporate responsibility : a comment on Paddy Ireland. Adelaide Law Review, 31 (2). pp. 229-239.

Abstract

This article is a response to Professor Paddy Ireland’s proposals for altering company law to reduce the excessive protection it offers to ‘irresponsible’ investment. It argues that, although Professor Ireland most valuably seeks to refine the Marxist perspective on the market, his proposals are insufficiently thoroughgoing in their embrace of the openness of market outcomes. Professor Ireland’s proposals seek to prevent investors limiting their liability, but the basic issue of corporate governance is determining the optimal level of insulation of investors from risk, and this very well may involve some, even extensive, limitation of liability. It is argued that the Marxist perspective on company law must more thoroughly embrace the possibility of a welfare-enhancing market in investor liability, though this will, of course, have radical implications for that perspective.