Books
Secession
Why Our Country Should Split Up
(And How to Do It Peacefully)
Forthcoming January 2027 from Mariner Books
America’s political divisions have become so deep—and its constitutional structure so poorly equipped to manage them—that it is time to consider a negotiated, democratic, and peaceful separation.
Moving beyond diagnosis and provocation, Secession offers a practical blueprint for how a restructuring could address citizenship, borders, constitutional design, interstate travel, federal property, and the many other challenges separation would create.
Corporations Are People Too
(And They Should Act Like It)
Yale University Press, 2018
Are corporations people? The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United intensified debate over whether corporations may claim constitutional rights. Greenfield argues that corporations sometimes should have rights—but that those rights must be connected to the people for whom corporations speak and to their responsibilities as institutions.
Bringing together constitutional and corporate law, the book challenges both progressive and conservative assumptions about corporate personhood and proposes a framework that treats corporations as citizens with obligations as well as rights.
The Myth of Choice
Personal Responsibility in a World of Limits
Yale University Press, 2011
American law and politics rest heavily on the assumption that people make free choices and should bear responsibility for them. But our decisions are shaped by forces we often fail to recognize, including biology, social conditions, economic structures, and the influence of institutions and markets.
Drawing on law, political theory, cognitive science, economics, and sociology, Greenfield examines how a more realistic understanding of choice should affect personal responsibility, public policy, and the design of legal institutions. The book argues that recognizing the limits on choice can help people make better decisions and help society respond more intelligently and fairly.
The Failure of Corporate Law
Fundamental Flaws and Progressive Possibilities
University of Chicago Press, 2006
Corporate law generally requires those who control large companies to prioritize shareholder interests, even when doing so imposes costs on employees, communities, and the public. Greenfield argues that this narrow model misunderstands the public character and social power of the modern corporation.
Treating corporate law as a branch of public law, the book proposes reforms that would give employees and other stakeholders a meaningful role in corporate governance. Its central aim is to make corporations more accountable and better able to create wealth for society as a whole, rather than principally for shareholders and executives.