NEW YORK – Rulers have always found it hard to accept limits on their power. When the French parliament disputed Louis XIV’s edicts in 1655, the king of France and Navarre is said to have responded: “L’état, c’est moi” (“I am the state”). The ensuing age of absolutism in France ended only with the French Revolution in 1789.

Like Louis XIV, Elon Musk rejects legal constraints on his power. In defiance of a recent Delaware Chancery Court ruling that voided his $56 billion compensation agreement with Tesla, Musk wants to reincorporate the company in Texas, where he is hoping to find more accommodating courts.

It is not the first time that Musk has sought to defy the Delaware court, which is the main venue for resolving most corporate law disputes in the United States (because most companies incorporate in Delaware). His hostility to the law and to binding legal agreements was on full display two years ago, when he tried to wriggle out of the deal to buy Twitter. Under court pressure, he eventually completed the transaction.

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QOSHE - Elon Musk and the Absolutist Revival - Katharina Pistor
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Elon Musk and the Absolutist Revival

20 1
13.02.2024

NEW YORK – Rulers have always found it hard to accept limits on their power. When the French parliament disputed Louis XIV’s edicts in 1655, the king of France and Navarre is said to have responded: “L’état, c’est moi” (“I am the state”). The ensuing age of absolutism in France ended only with the French Revolution in 1789.

Like Louis........

© Project Syndicate


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