Inaugural Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP Distinguished Lecture in Business Law a huge success

Photo by Greg Black

Professor William Bratton of the Georgetown University Law Center delivers the inaugural Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP Distinguished Lecture in Business Law to a large crowd of students and faculty in Ban Righ Hall on January 30, 2009.

Queen's Law launched the Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP Distinguished Lectures in Business Law on Friday, January 30, 2009.  Professor William Bratton of the Georgetown University Law Center, an internationally renowned authority on corporate governance, opened the inaugural event with a scholarly discussion titled "Corporate Law's Persistent Debates," on the history and future of corporate legal theory. 

The inaugural session, a 60-minute presentation of Bratton's paper discussing the categories of general political and methodological debate over legal theory, took place in the Lower Ban Righ Hall conference room. His talk was followed by a commentary by Robert Yalden, a partner in Osler's Business Law Department, on the significance of corporate legal theory for contemporary corporate law practices within Canada. The floor then opened for questions and discussion from the large crowd of students and faculty.  The lecture proved timely and apropos, as many of the students and faculty were very curious regarding where corporate law is likely to go in light of the economic crisis. 

Bratton delivered his lecture in a compelling manner that spoke directly to the Canadian legal community. He placed the lecture in a Canadian context by speaking to matters such as Canadian jurisprudence on the oppression remedy and the recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in BCE Inc. v. 1976 Debentureholders.

"Corporate legal theory is more a series of ongoing and unresolved debates than a unitary system of assertions," Bratton explained, "but even so, the points of debate need to be framed within some general synthetic assertions.  The assumption that markets get it right has been undermined -- corporate legal theory has some catching up to do."

Given the wide range of issues evident in a corporate field struggling during a global financial crisis, including regulatory authority and responsibility to different stakeholders in corporations, the different areas of dissonance sparked debate during the question period.  Bratton and Yalden both agreed that future corporate law reform will be shaped by historical corporate legal theory, with Bratton arguing that reform will take shape within the context of the "binaries" or poles of debate established over the history of corporate law, and Yalden speculating that the crisis may force us to think beyond - or between - binaries.

The event concluded with a wine and cheese reception that provided a forum for the guests and attendees to exchange thoughts on the session, and many took the opportunity to follow-up with questions directly posed to Bratton in a relaxed setting. "It was great," said Michael Atlas, Law '11.  "I really liked the opportunity to listen to a discussion on current business legal news from a more sophisticated and theoretical angle."

The distinguished lecture series was organized by Professor Paul Miller of Queen's Law, and established through the generosity of Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, to bring internationally recognized business law scholars to Queen's Law over the winter 2009 term, presenting and discussing their scholarly papers on contemporary topics in an interactive forum.  Bratton's lecture will be followed by a lecture by Roberta Romano of Yale Law School on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on February 27, and a lecture by Robert Sitkoff of Harvard Law School regarding statutory business trusts on March 27.  Each talk in the series is webcast live, with a copy of the webcast available on the Queen's Law website within two weeks of the lecture.

The lecture series has received a warm reception from the students, as it grants the opportunity to view commercial law from a more developed theoretical platform. "The inaugural lecture was a great success," Miller said. "Without doubt, the lecture surpassed our high expectations, and we remain very grateful to Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP for their support of the series."

To watch a recording and see more pictures of the lecture, please visit  http://law.queensu.ca/events/oslerDistinguishedLecturesInBusinessLaw/oslerPhotos1.html