The Corporation

The Corporation is a 2003 Canadian documentary film written by Joel Bakan, and directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. The documentary is critical of the modern-day corporation, considering it as a class of person and evaluating its behaviour towards society and the world at large as a psychatrist might evaluate an ordinary person. This is explored through specific examples. The Corporation has been displayed worldwide, on television, and via DVD, file sharing, and free download. Bakan wrote the book, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (ISBN 0-74324-744-2), during the filming of the documentary.

Joel Conrad Bakan (born 1959) is a Canadian lawyer and writer.

Born in Lansing, Michigan and raised for most of his childhood in East Lansing, Michigan where his parents, Paul and Rita Bakan, were both long-time professors in psychology at Michigan State University. In 1971, he moved with his parents to Vancouver, British Columbia. He was educated at Simon Fraser University (BA, 1981), University of Oxford (BA in law, 1983) and Dalhousie University (LLB, 1984).

He served as a law clerk to Brian Dickson in 1985, during his tenure as clerk Chief Justice Dickson authored the judgment R. v. Oakes among others. He then pursued a Masters degree at Harvard Law School. After graduation, he returned to Canada, where he has taught law at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University and the University of British Columbia.

Bakan authored The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, a book analyzing the evolution and modern-day behavior of corporations from a critical perspective. Published in 2004, it was made into a film the same year and won 25 international awards.

He is also the author of a number of books on Canadian constitutional law, including Just Words: Constitutional Rights and Social Wrongs, which analyzes the historical effect that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has had in promoting social justice. Joel Bakan is distinct by criticizing the actions of civil liberties groups and their overemphasis on individual liberty at the expense of collective rights and duties.http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/thesearch/pages/b-c-civil-liberties-association-has-talent-for-ticking-off-everyone.aspx

Bakan had two children with his first wife, Marlee Gayle Klein, also a scholar and Professor of Law at the University of British Columbia. Professor Klein died of leukemia in 2001 after a long struggle and Bakan supported his wife through her illness, while working on The Corporation, and established The Marlee Klein Memorial Lectures in Social Justice to commemorate her contributions to Canadian law and feminist legal theory. He is now married to Canadian actress and singer Rebecca Jenkins. His sister, Laura Naomi Bakan Q.C., is a prominent Vancouver lawyer, and his brother, Michael Bakan, a noted ethnomusicologist.