Economic Efficiency, Normative Account-Giving and Corporate Law

Abstract

Professor Marc T. Moore's Corporate Governance in the Shadow of the State, addresses the recent regulatory interventions in Anglo-American corporate law. The book attempts to take the debate about these legal changes out of the usual realm of arguments about their efficiency (where they can score poorly) and into the normative question of how corporate law can legitimate the power managers have over the resources of shareholders. Moore's normative approach is so good, that its ultimate weaknesses have the effect of calling into question the entire project of privileging normative criteria like legitimacy or justice over corporate law's traditional emphasis on securing economically efficient outcomes.

Keywords: Marc Moore, Corporate Governance, Economic Efficiency, Corporate Law, Securities Regulation

JEL Classification: G30, G38, H11