Citing the Lincoln Savings and Loan scandal, the Leo Frank murder trial, and other cases, author William Simon takes a fresh look at the ethics of lawyering.

This article considers the relative advantages of alternative enterprise forms in finance from the point of view of public accountability. The business corporation is compared to the state agency or authority, the cooperative, the state corporation, and the charitable nonprofit. These forms can be distinguished according to whether they aspire to enhance general electoral democracy or stakeholder democracy and whether their democratic controls operate directly or indirectly. The article suggests that the indirect democratic forms may be more promising than the (...) direct ones. It also argues that the project of democratizing finance depends on the development of practices of multifactor or “dialogic” performance assessment. Such practices must be institutionalized through public or private organizations that extend across firms. (shrink)

Unlike most theologians of his age, Martin Bucer proved to be farsighted with respect to European affairs: In addition to his contacts within Alsace and Germany he established relations with almost every European country. It was his ecumenical attitude that always led him to mediate between the parties in the religious battles of his time. His deep commitment to the goal of reaching agreement can be traced in all his activities, works and letters. Since the first editor, Jean Rott, died (...) in 1998, Bucer's correspondence has been edited in Erlangen. This academic edition of source material provides future research with a broad basis for significant aspects of Reformation history about which very little is known. Volume VI covers the period from May to October 1531. (shrink)

Wegen des großen Anteils an Einzelkorrespondenten in Bucers Briefwechsel von September 1532 bis Juni 1533 versammelt dieser Band eine Vielzahl von Anliegen. Bucer soll etwa bei Stellenbesetzungen vermitteln, für säumige Schuldner eintreten, seine exegetischen Werke zusenden, einen Trostbrief schreiben, zur Visitation kommen, mittellosen Autoren zum Druck ihrer Bücher verhelfen oder schlicht Fürbitte einlegen.

Unlike most theologians of his age, Martin Bucer proved to be farsighted with respect to European affairs: In addition to his contacts within Alsace and Germany he established relations with almost every European country. It was his ecumenical attitude that always led him to mediate between the parties in the religious battles of his time. His deep commitment to the goal of reaching agreement can be traced in all his activities, works and letters. Since the first editor, Jean Rott, died (...) in 1998, Bucer's correspondence has been edited in Erlangen. This academic edition of source material provides future research with a broad basis for significant aspects of Reformation history about which very little is known. Volume VII covers the period from October 1531 to March 1532. (shrink)

Since 1985, I have divided my professional life between teaching philosophy and practicing law in Northampton, Massachusetts. I am part of two excellent professional communities, the faculty of Smith College and the Hampshire County Bar. Making allowance for the usual sources of adult unhappiness--one gets divorced, has a drug or alcohol or gambling problem, a debilitating disease or injury, a child in jail, etc.-! -, we Northampton lawyers seem generally to be a happy lot. We are public-spirited, appearing disproportionately on (...) the boards of local nonprofit corporations. I know of no local polls on the question but our fellow townspeople appear to hold us in good esteem. We get on well with one another-- perhaps rather better than do my academic colleagues. Our chief source of professional anxiety is attracting remunerative employment in a highly competitive labor market. Still, virtually everyone seems to make at least a passable living and some obviously prosper. Very few of us have burned out and left practice. When we talk shop we often complain about particular judges, our clients and occasionally other lawyers, but never about the value of our profession. We do not often indulge in abstract speculation. (My lawyer friends take no interest at all in my writings on jurisprudence.) But our demeanors do not bespeak inchoate unhappiness with our professional lives. We are evidently pro! ud of what we do. (shrink)

Ab dem Frühjahr 1532 rückt wieder die Reichspolitik ins Zentrum von Bucers Aufmerksamkeit, als in Schweinfurt in seiner Gegenwart die Verhandlungen über einen befristeten Waffenstillstand zwischen Kaiser und Protestanten beginnen. Erst Bucers theologische Gutachten und Argumentationshilfen eröffnen den Oberdeutschen dort die Möglichkeit, die Lehrformulierungen der Confessio Augustana und ihrer Apologie mitzutragen.

The present law has developed, untidily but pragmatically, to enable the courts to do justice despite [the rules of consideration, privity and contractual limitation of actions]. Other legal systems have developed other, and possibly better, solutions. But I would not be willing to jettison the best solution we have unless it were to be replaced by a better1.