Public beginnings, private ends – should corporate law privilege the interests of shareholders?

Many theories of the corporation, including the law and economics model favoured under Australia's Corporate Law Economic Reform Program (CLERP), treat shareholder interests as pre-eminent. This paper questions the extent to which shareholder primacy reflects commercial reality and is justified as a matter of policy. In the commercial realm, the paper examines areas where there has been a blurring of boundaries between groups associated with the corporate enterprise. At the level of policy, the paper identifies a number of dangers associated with the trend towards collectivisation of shareholder and management interests.