Publications
“Lawyers of the Future” by Maarten van Laarhoven in Chapeau Magazine
Company Law is Bananas
While corporations wield tremendous amounts of power that can – in theory – ameliorate some of the global challenges that the world faces today, as things stand, the right incentives are not in place for the stakeholders to transform companies into socially responsible and environmentally conscious entities as a whole. While company law could be put forth as an instrument that incentivizes companies to be more socially aware and attentive to sustainability issues – in reality – relying on company law to change the true nature of companies and how they operate is akin to hammering a nail with a banana. While bananas are nutritious and delicious, they are not practical tools for a wide assortment of tasks. Similarly, although company law can serve a wide variety of purposes, it is not necessarily the instrument to change the incentives of corporate stakeholders to be more socially responsible in its present state.
How to Make Surfboards: A Checklist for Our Future Graduates
“What kind of skills do we want our graduates to have?” was the main topic of discussion during a recent staff meeting, which got me thinking. As the faculty of law, perhaps the “right” answer would entail something along the lines of: “Our graduates need to be capable of arguing logically, writing eloquently, and deciphering complex legal texts while comprehending the legislative intent behind them and their societal implications.” Not only would such an answer have been rather generic, but it definitely would have been a run-on sentence.
Psychological Oversight: Why Bills Advocating for Transparency Could Do More Harm
In an attempt to curtail labor exploitations taking place within the global supply chain, transparency legislations such as the Transparency in UK Company Supply Chains (Eradication of Slavery) Bill 2012-13 and other manifestations of sunshine policies have been on the rise. By incorporating findings from the field of social psychology, this short contribution questions the effectiveness of such measures and highlights some of the lurking risks should the legislators continue to promulgate similar legislations without a deeper understanding and appreciation for human cognition and psyche.
A Thank You Letter for Fred Rodell
Fred Rodell, the once revered Yale Law School professor and the “bad boy of American legal academia”[1] wrote that “[t]here are two things wrong with almost all legal writing. One is its style. The other is its content.”[2] His harrowing words acutely capture my conflicting relationship with (legal) writing, but more on point, it makes the path laid out before me (as someone in legal academia), a more difficult one to take.