In this modern world of global economics, corporations span nations and hold power and influence that rival countries. The industrial revolution gave birth and rise of corporations’ trajectory to the modern day huge powerful entities they have become. One of the critical enabling factors of corporate growth is that corporations under U.S. law hold many of the same rights as a person, including rights to privacy, to own property, and to protect its interests. The problem is, unlike a person, no single man or women is held accountable for moral and ethical action in a corporation. Furthermore the responsibility to increase profit is prioritized over all other aspects, seemingly regardless of consequences. This essay will discuss the questions; should corporation have rights a person, who within and what accountability should corporations for their actions, and what alternatives could there be to provide some protection to corporations without granting them rights as a person? …show more content…
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution was implemented after the civil war to help protect the rights of former slaves. The Amendment effectively says, that the state can not deprive any citizen of life, liberty, or property without due process and that the state must uphold the laws to enforce these rights. Not long after the amendment was passed corporate lawyers used it to argue that a corporate entity was entitled these same protections. In 1886 Sana Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co., the railroad lawyers legally won that argument. (Hodson, 2008, P365.) With this historic case, limited liability and a right to privacy was established for corporation. These two protections have their intended goals, but there are many unintended implications as