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More Information on
What Some Other Organizations Are Doing about Corporate Personhood
Program on Corporations,
Law and Democracy (POCLAD)
"I don't want
to be corrupted in a society that has a nominal commitment to basic
democratic values, but in reality only tolerates them and will deny
those values to outsiders. It's a painful line to deliver: We do not
live in a democracy. We live in a plutocracy. I wish it were not so."
--Ward Morehouse, co-founder of POCLADPOCLAD has conducted
much of its research in legal theory and corporate law, including the
judicial doctrines dealing with the commerce clause, personhood, the
business judgment rule, the prudent man rule, managerial prerogative
and corporate property rights.
POCLAD argues that a U.S. Supreme Court decision
in 1886 began a process of granting constitutional rights to
corporations as if they were living persons. With their rights as
"persons" combined with vastly greater financial and legal resources,
corporations now exert much more influence than living people on
legislation and court rulings. POCLAD seeks to abolish rights extended
to corporations and to remove constitutional impediments preventing
authentic democratic self-governance.
POCLAD has published a model
legal brief to help citizen groups create winning organizing
strategies by removing constitutional protections from corporations and
allowing citizens to regain control of their communities.
You can find more
information on the POCLAD site.
Ward Morehouse is the
co-founder of POCLAD. You can read about his
February, 2004 visit to Columbus, or you can read an article about him and POCLAD in
the May/June 2003 issue of UU World.
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