Pryor Thoughts

Even More on RadLAX

2012-05-29T17:30:00.002-04:00

For those who might be interested, check out my opening post at the Faculty Lounge here.

RadLAX Decided

2012-05-29T12:29:00.001-04:00

The SCOTUS issued its opinion in RadLAX v. Amalgamated Bank minutes ago. Read it here. And, if I do say so myself, I was right: 8-0.

Agency, Corporations, and Fiduciary Duties

2012-05-29T09:30:00.000-04:00

The Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court has recently published an excellent piece titled The Moral Underpinnings of Delaware's Modern Corporate Fiduciary Duties. Hat tip to colleague Haskell Murray for sending it to me. It doesn't seem to be available for download on SSRN so if you're interested you'll have to find volume 26 of the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy.

Chief Justice Steele is interested in the duties of corporate directors to the corporation and its shareholders, not the moral obligations of the corporation to people or ours to it. I've blogged several times on the latter. (See here, here, and here.)

What first interests me about Steel's piece is the firm place he finds for morality as such as the justification for the law of fiduciary duties. Even though he's a professing "contractarian" when it comes to the nature of the corporate entity, he's aware that the contractarianism alone or contractarianism's theoretical underpinnings in neo-classical economics are insufficient to explain the law as it is. For one, I'm thankful that someone of Chief Justice Steele's stature is willing to acknowledge the place of morality in the law rather than making up a "just-so" story to explain the law in reductionistic terms.

I'm also interested to see that Steele is forthright in describing the history of the law of fiduciaries. In other words, he explains this aspect of the law in terms of the biblical record and developments in canon law, two important but under-regarded "pieces" of our current law. I wish, however, that he had cited a few more resources to support his historical survey. While I respect former colleague Mary Szto's work, Charles Reid has also written extensively on this topic and would have added support to the Chief justice's conclusions.

Modern Virgin Sacrifices

2012-05-28T09:30:00.000-04:00

The theme of sacrifice frequents American thoughts during the Memorial Day weekend. But as life-affirming as are the sacrifices of those who died in service to their country there is a more pervasive, idolatrous form of sacrifice that pervades American life in an even deeper way. Take a look at MTV's latest "reality" show casting call here. "We're looking for adults who are ready to go all the way. Let MTV come along on your journey... as you try to lose your virginity!"

Thousands of years ago virgins were sacrificed to appease the gods, to atone for the sins of a people. Seems things haven't changed that much. Today MTV is sacrificing virgins on the altar of commercial profitability. Our idols may have changed but we're still willing to continue our futile efforts to placate our gods, whatever form they take.

Mahler's 8th

2012-05-27T19:07:00.000-04:00

Took in Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand") this afternoon at Chrysler Hall. An impressive performance by an augmented Virginia Symphony Orchestra together with the five choirs/choruses necessary to complete the 400-member symphony chorus plus eight (8!) soloists. While I knew the gist of the two movements from promotional emails, not having studied the text of the multiple parts and notes on the music reduced my appreciation.

I had expect to run through the notes in the program by getting to the performance 15 minutes early. For some reason, the supply of programs had already been exhausted. One would have thought that the knowledge that the performance was a sell-out would have prompted printing of enough programs but one would have been mistaken.

But 15 minutes wouldn't have been enough time to take in the ten pages of text anyway. A kind woman gave us an extra program after the performance and I've manged to study part of it so far.

I wouldn't exactly call Mahler's text strictly orthodox in Christian doctrine. Marrying early Medieval Latin Christian hymnody with a retelling of Goethe's Faust suggests infused rather than imputed righteousness and a moral influence theory of the atonement. Not exactly the theology of a good Presbyterian. Although the text notes didn't mention whether Mahler was aware of her, I wonder if he drew upon the universalistic writings of 14th-century anchoress Julian of Norwich for inspiration.

In any event, the performance was extraordinary from a technical view point and a fitting conclusion and crown for conductor JoAnn Falleta's goal of completing all of Mahler's symphonies.