Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons^™

Shaming In Corporate Law, David A. Skeel Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

Along with the burgeoning legal literature on norms has come a renewed interest in the use of shaming sanctions as an alternative to standard forms of punishment. Shaming enthusiasts such as Professor Dan Kahan have argued that shaming sanctions can be used either as an independent sanction, or to supplement sanctions such as fines that might not otherwise convey an adequate amount of moral disapproval. Shaming skeptics worry that shaming sanctions will lead to idiosyncratic or unpredictable enforcement. This Article focuses on the role that shaming can or could play in corporate law. Although this Article is not the first …