Corporations, Compelled Speech, and the Common Good

Most of the current literature on the subject of corporations and compelled speech focuses almost entirely on the extent to which corporations are or should be regulated by laws that compel them to conduct themselves in a certain way. In this paper, I explore the mostly uncharted territory of situat...

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Main Author: Lukas Opacic
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Southern Queensland Law, Religion, and Heritage Research Program Team 2024-04-01
Series:Australian Journal of Law & Religion
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ausjlr.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Volume-4-Opacic.pdf
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author Lukas Opacic
author_facet Lukas Opacic
author_sort Lukas Opacic
collection DOAJ
description Most of the current literature on the subject of corporations and compelled speech focuses almost entirely on the extent to which corporations are or should be regulated by laws that compel them to conduct themselves in a certain way. In this paper, I explore the mostly uncharted territory of situations in which corporations compel the speech of their own employees through policies which require employees to speak or act in a way that may be contrary to the form of life prescribed by their faith. I argue that philosophical defences against corporate compelled speech for religious employees on the basis that religious belief sits within a generally inviolate private sphere of autonomy are misguided because they do not take sufficient account of the nature of corporations as moral agents which can legitimately pursue moral and political ends in the public sphere. I argue that corporations necessarily rely on a conception of the common good when they do this. The permissibility of corporate compelled speech therefore comes down to whether or not it is conducive to the common good.
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spelling doaj-art-624229c597d044feb64d48e8f37fc4db2024-11-17T08:52:59ZengUniversity of Southern Queensland Law, Religion, and Heritage Research Program TeamAustralian Journal of Law & Religion2653-51222024-04-01484100https://doi.org/10.55803/B589ZCorporations, Compelled Speech, and the Common GoodLukas Opacic0Sydney Law SchoolMost of the current literature on the subject of corporations and compelled speech focuses almost entirely on the extent to which corporations are or should be regulated by laws that compel them to conduct themselves in a certain way. In this paper, I explore the mostly uncharted territory of situations in which corporations compel the speech of their own employees through policies which require employees to speak or act in a way that may be contrary to the form of life prescribed by their faith. I argue that philosophical defences against corporate compelled speech for religious employees on the basis that religious belief sits within a generally inviolate private sphere of autonomy are misguided because they do not take sufficient account of the nature of corporations as moral agents which can legitimately pursue moral and political ends in the public sphere. I argue that corporations necessarily rely on a conception of the common good when they do this. The permissibility of corporate compelled speech therefore comes down to whether or not it is conducive to the common good.https://ausjlr.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Volume-4-Opacic.pdfcorporationscompelled speechfreedom of speechreligious employeescommon good
spellingShingle Lukas Opacic
Corporations, Compelled Speech, and the Common Good
Australian Journal of Law & Religion
corporations
compelled speech
freedom of speech
religious employees
common good
title Corporations, Compelled Speech, and the Common Good
title_full Corporations, Compelled Speech, and the Common Good
title_fullStr Corporations, Compelled Speech, and the Common Good
title_full_unstemmed Corporations, Compelled Speech, and the Common Good
title_short Corporations, Compelled Speech, and the Common Good
title_sort corporations compelled speech and the common good
topic corporations
compelled speech
freedom of speech
religious employees
common good
url https://ausjlr.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Volume-4-Opacic.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT lukasopacic corporationscompelledspeechandthecommongood