Business Ethics: Contemporary Issues and Cases
Multimedia Resources
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Article 1: The Nature of the Firm
Description: Historical article by Ronald Coase; won a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1991.
Article 2: Moral Agency in Corporations
Description: Joshua Shepherd gives his viewpoint on moral agency in corporations.
Legal Case 1: Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward
Description: Provided the legal foundation for treating corporations as individual agents who could make contracts and own property.
Legal Case 2: Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co.
Description: First case to award corporations constitutional protections.
Legal Case 3: Hale v. Henkel
Description: Ruled corporations are protected under Fourth Amendment from unreasonable searches and seizures.
Legal Case 4: First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti
Description: Ruled a corporation had a limited right to free speech.
Legal Case 5: Central Hudson Gas & Electric Company vs. Public Service Corporation of New York
Description: Endorsed the corporation's rights to free speech.
Legal Case 6: Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission
Description: Held up the corporation's right to free speech.
Legal Case 7: Burwell v. Hobby Lobby
Description: Upheld the corporation's right to exercise religious beliefs.
Legal Case 8: FCC v. AT&T
Description: Refused to recognize a corporation's right to personal privacy.
Legal Case 9: Ford Motor Co. v. EEOC
Description: Supports the property model of the corporation; the shareholder’s interests have primacy in all corporate affairs.
Legal Case 10: Gottlieb v. McKee et al.
Description: Corporate officers and directors cannot use their position of trust to further their private interests.