Tuesday 20 April 2010

Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance - 50th Weekly Meeting

Dear all

To mark the 50th session of the Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance, to be held on Friday 23 April 2010, from 6.00 to 8.00pm, in room 5.16, 309 Regent Street (University of Westminster), we will tackle with the uncanny theme: "Fraud in The Heart of Finance and Religion"

We will focus on a recent filing by the US Securities Exchange Commission against Goldman Sachs and a 28 year vice-president named Fabrice Tourre for securities fraud.

Although we never ask participants to prepare for class, you may be curious to read the complaint: http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2010/comp21489.pdf
We also recommend Kevin M. LaCroix blog: http://www.dandodiary.com/2010/04/articles/subprime-litigation/ok-so-the-sec-sued-goldman-sachs-now-what/
Good legal analysis can be found at: http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/goldman-fraud-case-holds-risks-for-both-sides/

We will attempt to read the complaint together and comprehend a bit of US securities law. If we have time or depending on the inclination of the group, we shall then turn to the Grand Inquisitor, the 26-page classic within the Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. You can find an extract at http://www.online-literature.com/dostoevsky/2884/

The most zealous and frequent attendees to the Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance may be surprised to see how group theory applies to "Fraud in The Heart of Finance and Religion": homomorphism, epimorphism, monomorphism and isomorphism will be defined and used for purposes of abstracting comparisons. (It's all in the mapping of Mx.) In a system of law, why is truth isomorphic to fraud? Only a group theory can bring them together rigorously without sounding sanctimoniously Kantian. Also, we will again emphasize the perception of seeing "devils and and angels" simultaneously everywhere for any given decision at a given time.

We shall celebrate our 50th at Vapiano (19-21 Great Portland Street, W1W 8QB) from 8pm onwards.

See you on Friday!
Joe and Laura
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1 comment:

John Flood said...

There is also a good discussion of the legal issues on Goldman at the Legal Profession Blog by Jeff Lipshaw.