About the speaker
Garrath Williams is a Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University's School of Global Affairs. Their interests include moral philosophy, political theory, and applied ethics.
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Location
This talk will take place in Hagey hall and will be followed by light refreshments.
HH room 334
3:30 - 5:00 PM
Abstract
Kantian theorists have examined global economic structures, labour, and many issues in business ethics. But can Kantian political philosophy illuminate transnational business corporations (TNCs), the central actors of international commerce?
Building on my account in Kant Incorporated, I point out that a state-centred analysis of corporations cannot account for the distinctive structure of TNCs, networked yet footloose. They depend on widely shared legal frameworks with roots in European imperialism, so that a corporation based in any state can control subsidiary corporations across national borders. This structure enables economic power to be exercised worldwide, largely beyond the reach of any single state.
I then suggest a Kantian critique in terms of the three dimensions of public right. (i) Right of a state: TNCs weaken states’ capacity to regulate economic activity and uphold public purposes. (ii) International right: international law imposes hardly any direct duties or mechanisms of accountability, while effectively granting extensive rights to TNCs. (iii) Cosmopolitan right: TNCs’ subsidiaries are “visitors” that states and their citizens have little cause to welcome, yet little power to turn away.
In sum: Kantian cosmopolitan right was meant to serve peace and civic exchange, supporting the other two dimensions of public right. Commercial activity was meant to be merely a means; but now, I suggest, the “means” subvert the end. Reflecting imperial legacies, TNCs generate returns for a global elite of wealthy shareholders, while undermining all states’ ability to uphold rightful conditions.