Towards the imaginary of collective prosperity in the European Union (EU): reorienting the corporation

Abstract

In February 2022, the European Commission published the ‘Proposal for a Directive on Sustainable Due Diligence’. This proposal appears a first tentative step to move the European Union (EU) away from a neoliberal conception of corporation. It replaces the wholesale trust in shareholders as the drivers of social progress with a greater reliance on public intervention that, via law, should expand the purposes pursued by corporations and set more sustainable rules for their action. This intended shift towards a more socially responsible, ‘collectivist’ understanding of corporation, I argue, should be seen as part of a broader change in perception of the desirable relationship between the market, government and law in the EU, forced by the many unfolding crises.

Keywords

• European private law
• corporate law
• social imaginaries
• socio-ecological transformation