How should company law be structured to balance private corporate interests with the broader public good? John Parkinson, a legal scholar, challenges the traditional view that corporate internal affairs should remain free from external regulatory oversight. He proposes a framework where company law actively promotes the public interest, arguing that the current legal structure fails to account for the impact of corporations on non-shareholder stakeholders.

Legal scholars and practitioners recognize this work as a significant contribution to the debate on corporate social responsibility and regulatory theory. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the rigorous legal analysis applied to contemporary governance issues.