May 15–16, 2025, New York University School of Law

This symposium brings together scholars to explore, analyze, and debate the echoes of moral philosophy in business law. Business law covers a wide variety of subjects, including corporate and partnership law, trade secrets and other areas of unfair competition, federal securities regulation, antitrust law, intellectual property, and more. Many recognize the moral commitments expressed in contract law’s unconscionability doctrine or insider trading law’s fairness doctrine. However, too few consider the moral principles motivating partnership law’s unjust enrichment doctrine, Delaware’s entire fairness standard of review for challenged corporate actions, or the fair price remedies found in trademark, trade secret, and myriad other cases. Missing the role that Aristotelian, Kantian, Utilitarian and other moral commitments play in business law makes many policy debates under informed. Moreover, many officials draw unnecessarily strong distinctions between pursuing fairness and pursuing economic efficiency in various markets. Thus, this symposium brings together moral philosophers, legal academics, economists, and other scholars to more deeply examine the moral principles found in court opinions and other official statements.

Papers by Lynne Kiesling & Yoon-Ho Alex Lee (“Epistemic Humility and Adaptive Regulation“), Seth Oranburg (“Collective Phrónêsis in Equity Crowdfunding: Structuring Financial Regulation for Practical Wisdom“), Kevin Douglas (“False Profits and U.S. Securities Regulation“), Eric C. Chaffee (“Insider Trading and Moral Luck“), Sean Griffith (“Moral Philosophy and Shareholder Wealth Maximization“), John Hasnas (“Reflections on the Relationship of Moral Philosophy to Commercial Law“), Colleen Baker and Miguel Alzola (“Emergency Powers and Market Justice: Are There Limits for Trading Exchange and Clearinghouse Emergency Authorities?“), Richard Epstein (“The Historical Relationship between Legal and Moral Obligations“), Mihailis Diamantis (“Aristotle on Corporate Purpose“), Maximilian Torres and Paul Radich (“The Echo of Reality: Vestiges of Philosophical Realism in Business Law“), Robert Miller (“Contractual Counterparties Aiding and Abetting Breaches of Fiduciary Duty“), and Jason Stansbury (“Directors Acting Ultra Vires: Non-profit Missional Accountability and Nozickian Just Holdings“).