The Future of Economic Governance from America Unfinished: 250 Years of Law and Governance

The modern U.S. economy is dominated by private institutions whose power rivals that of the state. The governance of those institutions is thus a constitutional problem in miniature. This webinar is inspired by Mariana Pargendler’s essay “Corporate Governance and Private Power,” in which she argues that “U.S. law is moving toward developing-world cronyism, where controlling shareholders face few constraints and shape laws in their favor.”  Webinar participants will explore the future of economic governance in a world dominated by private authority and the kinds of legal developments necessary to preserve democratic values.

Moderator
Geeyoung Min, Chair of the Business Associations Section, Emory University School of Law

Speakers
Mariana Pargendler, Harvard Law School
Jeffrey Gordon, Columbia Law School

Register for this Zoom event.

This event is part of a series from The Association of American Law Schools on foundational themes explored in the book America Unfinished: 250 Years of Law and Governance (MIT Press, 2026). Edited by Alexandra Natapoff (Lee S. Kreindler Professor of Law) and Guy-Uriel Charles (Charles Ogletree, Jr. Professor of Law), the book assembles short essays from over 60 members of the Harvard Law School faculty, written from the perspectives of their many diverse fields, analyzing the issues facing our country’s bold experiment in democratic governance at this important milestone in American history.