‘Historicising the Recognition of the Travelling Corporation’

By Sundhya Pahuja

This chapter challenges the conventional notion that international law is merely a reactive force in the face of powerful global corporations. It argues that international law has played a constitutive role in enabling and normalising corporate mobility, or the ability of corporations to operate across jurisdictions. Using a historical analysis, it traces how legal doctrines, jurisdictional arrangements, and disciplinary divides have facilitated the recognition of corporate personality beyond national borders. Focusing on key moments of contestation from the 19th century to the postcolonial era, the chapter reveals how Western states embedded corporate mobility into international legal norms, often sidelining the sovereignty of decolonising nations. It advocates for a reflexive, historically grounded approach to understanding the co-constitution of corporate power and international law. Problematising the naturalised mobility of corporations, it calls for renewed legal strategies that confront the deep structural patterns enabling global corporate power and hindering equitable regulation.

PDF available here.

Citation

Pahuja, Sundhya, ‘Historicising the recognition of the travelling corporation’ in Barnali Choudhury (ed), Global Corporations and Sustainability (Edward Elgar, 2025) 181-205. [Link to the publication].