The Corporate Paradox: Economic Realities of the Corporate Form of Organization »

H.F.M. Cortenraad (1966), is a member of the bar of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He is currently a practicing lawyer in the Amsterdam offices of Loeff Claeys Verbeke (Nederland), where he specializes in corporate law and commercial litigation. Cortenraad graduated from the law schools of the Universities of Maastricht, The Netherlands, and Toronto, Canada. He is a former legal counsel of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group and a former John M. Olin Visiting Research Fellow in Law and Economics at Harvard Law School, USA.

Discusses the economics underlying the corporate form of business organization to better understand both the rationales and the effects of the corporation as a legally endorsed concept of organization. Cortenraad, a Dutch lawyer, examines how the corporate form affects organizational behavior as well as the human behavior of managers and investors. He asserts that the widespread acceptance of corporate practices should not conceal the social costs arising from several conflicts of interests attending the corporate form, which market mechanisms have failed to eliminate. In particular, he discusses the effects of the limited shareholder liability on other members of society, and surveys legal remedies that United States and Dutch law have developed in response to inefficiencies. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR