In 1906, a definition of the corporation submitted by Ambrose Bierce in his Devil’s Dictionary, noted that a corporation is ‘‘an ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility’’ (Bierce, 1906, reprint 1993). Consider
however, how astonished Bierce would be in light of recent and often successful claims of individual liability on the part of corporate leadership in some American and European firms. Beyond that liability assessed against individual decision-makers (or for the prominent lack of decisions, in somecircumstances), there is a growing trend toward holding corporations responsible as corporations for their impact on the social fabric of the systems in which they conduct their business.