Posted on behalf of Mark Sargent, Dean of the Villanova University School of Law
**************************************************** VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW JOURNAL OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL THOUGHT The Fifth Annual Conference on Catholic Social Thought and the Law Catholic Social Teaching on the Market, the State and the Law CALL FOR PAPERS Villanova University Conference Center Friday, September 21, 2008 The nature and implications of Catholic social teaching on the significance of the market for human dignity, and on the role of the state in the regulation of the market, is one of the most controversial aspects of the social doctrine. Catholic social teaching on these issues can best be described as sui generis and non-assimilable to secular conceptions of "left" or "right," but both the left and right have claimed that teaching for their own. This has led to fundamentally inconsistent characterizations of Catholic social teaching as either left-communitarian or as supportive of a strong form of economic liberalism. Can both characterizations be correct? Does disagreement over the proper role of the state prevent creation of a coherent theory of how the market contributes to the common good? Even more troublesome is the argument that the teaching on the market and its relation to the state is so general and abstract, and so deferential to secular/technical knowledge, that virtually all specific questions of economic and regulatory policy should be regarded matters of prudence, and that the social doctrine gives no or little guidance to their resolution. If that is true, then the value of Catholic social teaching in this field is questionable, to say the least. Is such a wholesale deference to prudential judgment consistent with Catholic social teaching's robust conception of the common good? These contesting claims about Catholic social teaching have broad implications for Catholic legal theory. Can the social doctrine provide a framework for determining when and how the market should be freed or constrained by law? Can we derive from it a set of normative propositions about the nature and purpose of the corporation that would provide a foundation for the law of corporate governance and social responsibility? What implications does Catholic social teaching about the market have for the legal structuring of the employment relationship? These are just a few of the questions that will be considered at the Conference. The Conference will bring together legal academics, economists, theologians and philosophers. Articles presented at the Conference will be considered for publication in the Journal of Catholic Social Thought, a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal. Please submit paper proposals or requests for more information to Dean Mark A. Sargent, [EMAIL PROTECTED] or Professor Michael Moreland, [EMAIL PROTECTED] at Villanova University School of Law. Information for those wishing to attend the Conference will be published shortly. ***************************************************** Jim Maule Professor of Law, Villanova University School of Law Villanova PA 19085 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://vls.law.vill.edu/prof/maule mauledagain.blogspot.com President, TaxJEM Inc (computer assisted tax law instruction) (www2.taxjem.com) Publisher, JEMBook Publishing Co. (www.jembook.com) Maule Family Archivist & Genealogist (www.maulefamily.com) _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
