Exxon is taking its shareholders to court as the anti-ESG backlash escalates into a civil war between the proponents of shareholder primacy

Since the 2008 financial crisis, a growing chorus of advocates and scholars have argued that corporations have a responsibility toward a number of different stakeholders, including their employees. The opposing camp has held that shareholders come first: They are the owners of the firm, and they should ultimately decide how it acts.

However, there is a schism forming among those who claim to adhere to the idea of shareholder primacy–the notion that a company should serve only its investors. And it widened again last month when oil giant ExxonMobil sued two of its shareholders, Arjuna Capital and Follow This, to block them from submitting climate-related resolutions at its shareholder meeting. READ MORE