Anna Beckers in "The Remains of the Corporation: A Future of Fragmented Corporate Personhood"

Anna Beckers contributed a chapter titled "The Remains of the Corporation: A Future of Fragmented Corporate Personhood" to the book The Future of the Person, edited by Hans-W. Micklitz and Giuseppe Vettori.

This book rigorously debates the notion of the person, a fundamental concept which underpins national private law orders worldwide. In the 20th century, the unity of the person came under pressure – firstly through the rise of labour law and then secondly (post-World War II) through consumer law. The book moves this debate on, exploring the ongoing fragmentation of the concept of the person and the unique challenges that this gives rise to, and suggesting how this might impact on the future of private law. The book asks three questions:

1. Are the 'subject' of the 19th-century Codes or the 'person' of 20th-century constitutions useful categories of reference for the person?
2. Could fundamental rights, currently central to the notion of the person, be replaced by forms of the 'impersonal'?
3. How, and why, should subjectivities be rethought in the age of infocracy and autocracies?

Thought-provoking and paradigm-shifting, this is a fascinating examination of the bedrock of private law.