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Richard Schragger & Micah Schwartzman have posted “Some Realism about Corporate Rights” on SSRN.  Here is the abstract:

Can we meaningfully speak of a church’s right to conscience or a corporation’s right to religious liberty? One way to approach this question is by inquiring into the nature of churches and corporations, asking whether these are the kinds of entities that can or should have rights. We have recently seen this kind of reasoning in public debates over whether corporations have free speech rights, and, relatedly, in arguments about the religious free exercise rights of churches, non-profits, and for-profit corporations. Those in favor of such rights sometimes argue that corporations and churches are moral agents, capable of exercising rights separate and apart from the rights and interests of their members; whereas, those opposed tend to argue that churches, corporations or groups are mere aggregations of individuals, or else artificial persons created or recognized by the state to advance the interests of those who compose them.

In this paper, we argue that this form of argument is mistaken and that debates about the ontological status of group or corporate entities are largely irrelevant. One does not need a particular…

The increase in institutional ownership of corporate stock has led to questions about the role of financial intermediaries in the corporate governance process. This post focuses on the issues associated with the so-called “separation of ownership from ownership,” arising from the growth of three types of institutional investors, pensions, mutual funds, and hedge funds.

Originally, the anti-takeover law passed its court challenges because the judges accepted faulty data that showed investors could acquire at least 85 percent of the target corporation and satisfy the Williams Act, Subramanian said. But none of the cases used to support the anti-takeover law actually allowed hostile suitors to acquire a controlling 85 percent of a target company, he said, and plaintiffs using research from new studies would be able to convince a judge that the statute is unconstitutionally restrictive.

For me, the financial crisis was an eye-opening moment. I’ve long believed in free market economics and believed that the Church would do a lot of good…

A friend recently asked me to suggest some books that might help him improve his meditation practice.  Operating under the assumption that if the topic is appropriate for the Wall Street Journal (“Doctor’s Orders: 20 Minutes Of Meditation Twice
a Day“), then it’s good enough for this blog, I thought I’d pass on my suggestions to interested readers.  The first 3 make up my personal list of “classics,” and the last is a shameless plug for a book of edited dharma talks I wrote based on my year of studying under sensei Ji Sui Craig Horton of the Cleveland
Buddhist Temple.  While my suggestions all focus on Buddhist/Zen meditation, there are certainly more “generic” approaches to learning about meditation — for example, one might visit the website for the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society,
which seeks to transform higher education “by supporting and encouraging
the use of contemplative/introspective practices and perspectives to create
active learning and research environments that look deeply into experience and
meaning for all in service of a more just and compassionate society” (I was made aware of this source while attending a panel discussion on “Engagement, Happiness, and Meaning in …