THE SOCIO-ECONOMICS SECTION OF THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN LAW SCHOOLS: INTRODUCING THE WORK OF LAW PROFESSOR ROBERT ASHFORD

THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN LAW SCHOOLS (AALS) ANNUAL MEETING, 

January 2008, New York City

NOTE FROM THE BLOG:  The following conference program introduced the work of and planning by Syracuse law professor Robert Ashford, an advocate of socio-economics and economic justice in the law.   Law professor Wendy Nicole Duong of the University of Denver participated as a speaker on corporate social responsibility.  She shared professor Ashford's commitment to economic justice. 

AALS Annual Meeting

Jan. 2-6, 2008

Hilton, New York, New York

8:45 - 5:00 p.m.
Section on Socio-Economics, Co-Sponsored by Sections on Jurisprudence, Minority Groups, Poverty Law and Women in Legal Education
Murray Hill B, Second Floor, Hilton New York
Socio-Economics and Economic Justice

All sessions will be held in Murray Hill A, Second Floor, Hilton New York, unless otherwise stated.

8:45 - 9:00 a.m.
Welcome
Speakers: Robert Ashford, Syracuse University College of Law

The three-paragraph definition of socio-economics (signed by over one hundred twenty law teachers from more than fifty American law schools to establish the AALS Section on Socio-Economics) has both positive and normative dimensions that parallel lawyers’ professional responsibilities regarding facts, values and the duty to improve the law for the benefit of society. As such, it provides a holistic approach to law-related economic issues that especially helpful to lawyers. This year’s program explores positive and normative aspects of socio-economics that can enhance teaching, research and service.

9:00 - 10:00 a.m.
Deans’ Forum on ` and Economic Justice
Speakers: Jim Chen, University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law
Roger J. Dennis, Rutgers, The State University of N.J. School of Law, Camden
I. Richard Gershon, Charleston School of Law
Dennis R. Honabach, Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase College of Law
Donald J. Polden, Santa Clara University School of Law
Edward L. Rubin, Vanderbilt University Law School
Emily A. Spieler, Northeastern University School of Law
Kellye Y. Testy, Seattle University School of Law

In this session, eight law school deans supportive of socio-economics share their views on (1) the relationship between socio-economics and economic justice, (2) the importance of the socio-economic approach in legal education, and (3) ways to enhance the understanding and use of socio-economic analysis in legal education.

10:10 - 11:10 a.m.
Concurrent Sessions

• Corporate Governance, Fiduciary Duties, and Social Responsibility
  Murray Hill B, Second Floor, Hilton New York
  Speakers: Wendy Nicole Duong, University of Denver
  Jose M. Gabilondo, Florida International University College of Law
  Robert C. Hockett, Cornell Law School
  Cheryl Lyn Wade, St. John’s University School of Law
  
  This session explores analyses that suggests that corporate fiduciaries can better maximize corporate and shareholder wealth by approaching economic issues from a socio-economic foundation rather than from neoclassical perspective. To understand how best to promote corporate wealth maximization from a socio-economic perspective, one shifts primary attention from the static neoclassical notion of “the size of the pie” that results from the efficient allocation of resources to a dynamic focus on participation in the financing and operation of the bakery. Socio-economic analysis indicates that major corporations may have a significant wealth-maximizing interest in strategies that promise to enhance (1) stakeholder wealth and (2) sustainable demand for their productive capacity. This session explores ways in which corporations can enhance corporate wealth by benefiting their stakeholders and by taking a long-term view of wealth maximization.
• Socio-Economic Dimensions of Academic Freedom In Katrina’s Wake
  Morgan Suite, Second Floor, Hilton New York
  Speakers: Matthew W. Finkin, University of Illinois College of Law
  Robert Ashford, Syracuse University College of Law
  Jordan Kurland, Associate General Secretary, American Association of University Professors, Washington, D.C.
  David M. Rabban, The University of Texas School of Law
  
  The hegemony of any dominant paradigm of mainstream thinking in one or more disciplines raises questions of academic freedom for professors who teach, research, and serve in ways that challenge the reasons for the paradigm’s dominance. Economic realities affect the exercise and protection of academic freedom, and the quality of academic affects economic realities
  
  In the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure of American Association of University Professors (AAUP), universities and colleges may terminate the “continuous appointment” tenured faculty members when the termination is “because of financial exigency...demonstrably bona fide.” Following Hurricane Katrina, certain universities in New Orleans determined to terminate the tenured employment of scores of tenured professors citing the economic exigency. An AAUP Special Committee on Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans Universities found that there was “nearly universal departure from (or in some cases complete abandonment of) personnel and other policies” by five New Orleans institutions. The Report resulted in four censures. In this session, representatives of the AAUP responsible for the investigation will present and discuss the Report and the response to it.
• Telecommunications and the Internet, Race, Ethnicity, Language, and Socio-Economics
  Clinton Suite, Second Floor, Hilton New York
  Speakers: Leonard M. Baynes, St. John’s University School of Law
  Allen Hammond, Santa Clara University School of Law
  Catherine J.K. Sandoval, Santa Clara University School of Law
  Anthony Eudelio Varona, American University Washington College of Law
  
  This panel will explore the intersection of telecommunications law and policy with race, ethnicity, language and gender issues. Panelists will explore issues including the digital divide in access to telecommunications technology, minority ownership of media, antitrust market definition and the Federal Communications Commission’s proceeding regarding whether the rules about broadcast ownership should be changed.
• How White-Collar Criminologists Are Falsifying The Conventional Economic Wisdom and Building Socio-Economic Theory
  Madison Suite, Second Floor, Hilton New York
  Speakers: William K. Black, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law
  Robert E. Prasch, Professor, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont
  Robert Tillman, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. John’s University, Jamaica, New York
  Susan Will, Professor, John Jay College, New York, New York
  
  The Nobel Laureate in Economics, George Stigler, proudly proclaimed economics “The Imperial Science” and dismissed other social science disciplines as non-sciences. The claim that neo-classical economics provides a uniquely, and universally, valid means for understanding society was asserted as self-evident truth. Stigler’s imperial pretensions have suffered badly as neo-classical economics’ predictions have been falsified by events. Neo-classical economics’ predictions with regard to white-collar crime have proved particularly embarrassing. White-collar criminologists have, since their inception, demonstrated the falsity of neo-classical economists’ predictions about white-collar crime and criminals. Logically, “if it’s bad criminology, it’s bad economics.” White-collar criminologists, however, have gone beyond falsifying erroneous neo-classical theories and have launched a multidisciplinary development of theory that has been shown to have superior predictive power. The logic is: “if it’s good white-collar criminology, it’s good economics.” A panel of experts in white-collar criminology will discuss the development of modern theories of corporate misconduct.