Velasco on CST and corporate law

Several MOJ-ers have blogged about the recent CST conference at Villanova, on markets, the state, and the law.  I asked my NDLS colleague, corporate-law scholar Julian Velasco, for a summary of the paper he presented at the conference.  Here it is:

I focused on developing some guiding principles to help me in trying to put CST into practice in corporate law in the real world.  First, we have to give due consideration to the status quo in enacting reform.  Thus, for example, if shareholders are the owners of the corporation, then we must respect those ownership rights — even if only to pay just compensation before abolishing them.  Second, “more” CST is not necessarily better.  Thus, we cannot say things like, “my plan demonstrates greater solidarity than yours and therefore is more Catholic.”  Plans that are strong in some areas of CST may well be considerably weaker in other areas.  Third, it is not necessarily the case that every aspect of CST is speaking to each society with the same urgency.  Thus, for example, it may be that, in America today, the universal destination of goods is a greater concern than the right to work.  We probably should focus our efforts accordingly.  Finally, it may be too much to expect corporate law, or even all of business law, to solve all of the world’s problems.  Maybe it is enough that they do what they can.  And CST does not necessarily say what that is.  Ultimately, CST should not be expected to provide specific solutions to complex moral problems.  Instead, it should be understood as providing important principles that are intended to be embraced and applied in good faith.