Reference no: EM133265357

Assignment:

Business ethics

In the lecture notes for chapter 4 on capitalism I briefly raised the topic of corporate behavior and moral agency. I suggested that, irrespective of the question of Utilitarian, Kantian, Libertarian, or Rawlsian principles, there are some interesting moral difficulties surrounding the very idea of a corporation as an agent that can be praised or blamed for things that it does. One interesting case involving some of these concerns arose in the trial of Jefferey Skilling (of Enron fame). In particular, Skilling's defense team motioned for a retrial based on its contention that the jury was not sufficiently instructed regarding an important distinction between individual and corporate agency.

As this is not a class on the philosophy of law I want to avoid questions of precedent, procedure, and interpretation (and, in particular whether or not certain statutes are legally valid) but I do want you to discuss the core of Skilling's contention. As presented "...in his argument Skilling contends that the federal statute known as "honest services" was not valid because the jury was not required to review whether he acted for private gain or the company's gain."

Your task this week is to discuss some of the general issues raised by Shaw regarding the problematic idea of corporate agency. Whether or not you believe that Skilling should be granted a retrial I want you to seriously entertain the arguments in favor of it and what this might say about the very idea of limited liability.