Ohio's First "Modern" Business Corporation Act (1927)

Abstract

Ohio's corporation laws were suboptimal in the 1920s. The statutory framework was jerry-built, legislators reacting in haste to address the latest corporate scandal or controversy, with no consistent doctrinal foundation other than a residual (if receding) animosity to corporations, long associated with special privileges and monopoly. Yet the state's economy in the Second Industrial Revolution was robust and Ohio c. 1920 was politically ascendant (both major parties nominating Ohioans as their presidential standardbearers).