Student Development Speaker Series
RICE UNIVERSITY
link to full page

      The student development speaker series was initiated in the Fall of 2000.  Speakers from both industry and the academy are invited to give talks on a wide range of areas concerning social issues in management and business ethics.  This page lists and describes recent past events. 

Professor Douglas A. Schuler
Jesse H. Jones School of Management
Rice University

Ethics, Law, and Insider Trading

We examined the basis for business decision making by examining the R. Foster Winans insider trading case. Mr. Winans plead "not guilty" in front of a U.S. federal judge to violations of securities law because "although he had acted immorally, he had not acted illegally." From this premise, we considered three things: (1) how (securities) law is made and implemented in the U.S. system; (2) how moral rules are derived from an "original position"; and (3) how these moral rules relate to law. Through this discussion, we illustrate that there are significant problems in the formulation (e.g., lobbying by the parties that are likely to be 'regulated' by the new law) and implementation (e.g., separation of powers) of laws, that law 'typically' (but not always) has a moral basis, and that the law is dynamic and reacts to new social mores and factual situations (e.g., Mr. Winans was found guilty of violating U.S. security laws in a novel extension of law to his situation). The bottom line for the students is to reflect on how they want to make decisions when what is seen as 'right' (or in this case 'wrong') by moral conventions seems at odds with what is (at present) legal.