The measure of man
From the same source as the “Cyberspace as place” paper, this one referring to the classic “measure of man” Star Trek Next Generation episode :
“This article brings together the law’s story of corporate personhood with its science fictional counterpart: the story of the android, Lieutenant Commander Data, from “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Both the modern corporation and Data are cases of artifactual agency–actors created by artificial means. As such, their claims to personhood–that is, to being moral agents with the same rights and duties as their human counterparts–are problematic. But the story science fiction tells of Data’s claim to personhood is markedly different from the story the law tells about the corporation. Data’s story reveals the “silences” in the narrative of corporate law, replacing them with dialogue. In revealing such “silences,” Data’s story brings into view an alternative moral framework for the law’s struggles with corporate personhood, a new “ending, which we can supply.”
It’s written by Jeffrey Nesteruk. I’m not completely sure the comparison is really relevant as I would rather take the tea with Data than with a corporation (actually the paper itself is not downloadable, which is a shame)