Dan Danielsen
Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Program on the Corporation, Law and Global Society
Education
Harvard University, JD 1989
Bio
Professor Danielsen is a legal scholar who spent many years as an international business lawyer. He teaches Corporations, Law and Development, International Business Regulation, International Law and Conflict of Laws. His research explores the complex role of the business firm in global governance. He is also faculty director of the Program on the Corporation, Law and Global Society, which fosters interdisciplinary research and discussion among scholars, policymakers and advocates to examine the corporation as an institutional form with social significance akin to the state, the family or the city.
With a better understanding of the workings of private power in the global governance regime, Professor Danielsen hopes to develop new and more complex notions of economic participation, political pluralism and distributive justice in the creation and operation of the rules that shape global economic activity and more effective, participatory and accountable strategies for harnessing corporate power to enhance economic well-being and social welfare, particularly in the developing world. Most recently his work has focused on exploring the dominance of global supply chains in the global economy and the role of law in enabling and sustaining these structures and the inequitable distribution of power, resources and welfare they seem to have brought in their wake.
Prior to joining the Northeastern faculty, Professor Danielsen was executive vice president and general counsel of Europe Online Networks S.A., a pioneer in the provision of broadband Internet and interactive multimedia services to consumers across Europe. Previously, Professor Danielsen was a partner at Foley, Hoag & Eliot in Boston, where his practice focused on the representation of US and European public and privately held business with respect to corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships and joint ventures, content and technology licensing and corporate strategy.
Fields of Expertise
- Anti-corruption
- Business Law
- Careers in the Law
- Corporate Accountability
- Economics and the Law
- Intellectual Property
- International Law
- Jurisprudence Philosophy
- Law and Economic Development
- Law and Inequality
- Political Economy
Selected Works
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After Identity: A Reader in Law and Culture (Routledge, 1995) (co-authored).
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- “To See the World in a Grain of Sand’: Law and Capitalism Revealed Through the Corporation,” Northeastern University School of Law Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series 385 (2020).
- “Situating Human Rights Approaches to Corporate Accountability in the Political Economy of Supply Chain Capitalism,” Northeastern University School of Law Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series 384 (2020).
- “The Role of Law in Global Value Chains: a Research Manifesto,” 4 London Review of International Law 57 (2016) (co-author).
- “Economic Approaches to Global Regulation: Expanding the International Law and Economics Paradigm,” 10 Journal of International Business and Law 23 (2011).
- “Busting Bribery: Sustaining the Global Momentum of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” Open Society Foundations (September, 2011) (co-author).
- “Local Rules and a Global Economy: An Economic Policy Perspective,” 1 Transnational Legal Theory 49 (2010).
- “How Corporations Govern: Taking Corporate Power Seriously in Transnational Regulation and Governance,” 42 Harvard International Law Journal 411 (2005).
- “What’s in a Name? Stakes and Consequences in Defining Feminism(s)” in “Gender, Sexuality and Power—Is Feminist Theory Enough?” 12 Columbia Journal of Gender and Law 624 (2003), 624.
- “Law and Violence,” Utah Law Review 247 (1994).
- “Representing Identities: Legal Treatment of Pregnancy and Homosexuality,” 26 New England Law Review 1453 (1992).
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- “Situating Human Rights Approaches to Corporate Accountability in the Political Economy of Supply Chain Capitalism,” in Power to the People? Private Regulatory Initiatives, Human Rights and Supply Chain Capitalism, ed. D. Brinks et al. (Penn Press, 2019).
- “Trade, Distribution and Development under Supply Chain Capitalism,” in Globalization Reimagined: Towards a Progressive Agenda for World Trade and Investment Law, ed. A. Santos et al. (Anthem Press, 2019).
- “Letting Go of ‘The Normal’ in Pursuit of an Ever-Elusive Real: A Proposal for Innovation in International Law and Economics Theory and Scholarship,” in The Oxford Handbook of International Legal Theory, ed. A. Orford et al. (Oxford University Press, 2016).
- “Corporate Power and Instrumental States: Toward a Critical Reassessment of the Role of Firms, States and Regulation in Global Governance,” in International Law and Its Discontents: Responding to Global Crises, ed. B. Stark (Cambridge University Press, 2015).
- “Beyond Corporate Governance: Why a new Approach to the Study of Corporate Law is Needed to Address Global Inequality and Economic Development,” in Political Economy and Law: A Handbook of Contemporary Practice, Research and Theory, ed. J. Haskell et al. (Edward Elgar, 2015).
- “Corporate Power and Global Order,” in International Law and Its Others, ed. A. Orford (Cambridge University Press, 2006).
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- “The Role of Law in Global Value Chains: A Window on Global Political Economy,” Introduction to Special Symposium on Law and Global Value Chains, Law and Political Economy Blog (December 16, 2019) (co-author).
- “The Corporation, Law and Capitalism: A Radical Perspective on the Role of Law in the Global Political Economy,” City, University of London News Announcement (August 20, 2019).
- “Professor Danielsen Invited to Speak at UN Headquarters,” Northeastern Law News Announcement (March 25, 2019).
- “U.S.’s News Fraud Chief Will Enforce Laws He Was Paid to Blunt,” BloombergBusiness.com (February 27, 2015).
Dan Danielsen
Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Program on the Corporation, Law and Global Society