The Open Corporation, originally published in 2002, set out a blueprint for effective corporate self-regulation, offering practical strategies for managers, stakeholders and regulators to build successful self-regulation management systems. Christine Parker examined the conditions under which corporate self-regulation of social and legal responsibilities were likely to be effective, covering a wide range of areas - from consumer protection to sexual harassment to environmental compliance. Focusing on the features that make self-regulation or compliance management systems effective, Parker argued that law and regulators needed to focus much more on 'meta-regulating' corporate self-regulation if democratic control over corporate action was to be established.

"In a lively and challenging work that is light years away from the received wisdom that the corporation is answerable only to the profit motive of its shareholders, Christine Parker seeks to explore the possibility of transforming the corporation from an object of external regulation to a subject capable of self-regulation." Griffith Law Review