Corporate judicial activity

The literatures on non-market strategy in business studies and the thematically intersecting field of lobbying and interest group research in political science both exhibit a profound blind spot when it comes to how corporate influencing unfolds in relation to the judiciary and the broader justice system (henceforth corporate judicial activity - CJA). There are many prima facie plausible reasons why not to bother with the judiciary when it comes to corporate political activity. All of these justifications however turn out to be misguided – ontologically, conceptually, practically. Quite to the contrary, current political and legal dynamics suggest that the judiciary has evolved into a pivotal area of concern and engagement for corporate political activity and lobbying more generally. CJA is at a minimum highly interdependent with and complementary to conventional modes of exerting influence on executive and legislative functions. But, more often than not, shaping the justice system represents the ultimate prize, where successful interventions come with a deeply structural impact. Successfully influencing the judiciary hard-codes special privileges into the system of interest politics that transcend the benefits achievable through other political strategiesWhat’s more, the practical CJA repertoire can be deployed in ways that evade public scrutiny to a surprising extent and exploit glaring, yet largely overlooked loopholes in the ethics and integrity infrastructures that are idiosyncratic to the judicial apparatus. An organizing framework centred around the four thematic “containers” of ideas, institutions, people and events can provide a first good template for cataloguing different types, practical manifestations and empirical characteristic of CJA in a systematic way. Cataloguing these examples underscores that CJA is not just standard corporate political activity exercise in just another domain but comes with a number of highly distinctive features and dynamicsPrincipal among these is the observation that at the vortex of CJA sits an influencing industry made up of big law firms that serve as super-agents who can potentially reap even bigger benefits from influencing successes than their clients. They are more highly incentivised, much better resourced and less heavily regulated than conventional lobbying firms.In sum, one cannot understand the contemporary role of business in politics without considering the role of business action in the justice system. And one cannot contemplate possible implications for corporate responsibility and effective policy reforms without such an enlarged focus that includes CJA