Theology in Public Reason and Legal Discourse: A Case for the Preferential Option for the Poor

There is a strange disconnect between the formal understanding of the separation of religion from government in the United States and the almost ubiquitous use of religious language in political discourse, not to mention the web of complicated religious motivations that sit on or just below the surface of policy debates. This paper presents an argument for the relevance of the principle of the preferential option for the poor from Catholic social thought in public reason and legal discourse in order to explore the possible advantages of making the veil between religion and the secular state more permeable. As a case study, it proposes dialogue between Catholicism and complementary secular thought, including standpoint theory, outsider methodology, and law and economics to explore possibilities for more effectively ensuring justice for the poor and marginalized

Reconceptualizing the Theory of the Firm – From Nature to Function

What is the firm ? This Article revisits and explores the theory of the firm and corporate personhood and shows how the century-old discourse in this area still firmly shapes how scholars, judges, and legislatures treat legal entities in corporate law, constitutional law, tort law, and criminal law, causing unnecessary complications and flawed outcomes. Traditionally, the firm is characterized as a real entity, a fiction, or an aggregate. Conversely, this Article proposes a novel answer to the perennial question as to how to conceptualize the firm. The new approach refocuses the debate away from the nature of the firm and contends that explanations of the firm should focus instead on its economic and social function, purpose, and effects. It also argues that compared to current approaches, a purely functional approach, as developed in greater detail in the Article, provides a more useful analytical framework to ascertain what rights and duties corporations and other legal entities should have