The climate of financial scandal signals the human hands at work in causing economic crises, and dire economic times raise the practical import of meaningful access to and execution of legal remedies. Assuming we can identify blameworthy actors amid the real victims, a host of remedial issues abound. What goals are most important to remedying the problems: compensation, restoration, accountability, redistribution, deterrence, or punishment? The challenge in economic crisis is that a shrinking pie diminishes the law’s ability to deliver a full measure of compensation. The IMF projects that the world economy will shrink 1.3% in 2009. Meanwhile more responsible parties will be implicated, and more victims will suffer. Recent scandals—such as the Madoff ponzi scheme, the Cunningham bribery debacle, and the subprime mortgage securitization crisis—provide ripe examples for exploring an array of remedial issues, including: restitution, asset tracing, unwinding, accounting, public remedies, corporate governance and accountability, and maximization of recovery for victims. This panel will explore how best to effectuate justice via legal remedies. The legal system’s ability to render meaningful remedies in the face of crises will say much about the purpose and limits of our substantive rights.
Business Meeting at Program Conclusion.