Insider Trading: Law, Ethics, and Reform

by John P. Anderson

Overview

As long as insider trading has existed, people have been fixated on it. Newspapers give it front page coverage. Cult movies romanticize it. Politicians make or break careers by pillorying, enforcing, and sometimes engaging in it. But, oddly, no one seems to know what's really wrong with insider trading, or - because Congress has never defined it - exactly what it is. This confluence of vehemence and confusion has led to a dysfunctional enforcement regime in the United States that runs counter to its stated goals of efficiency and fairness. In this illuminating book, John P. Anderson summarizes the current state of insider trading law in the US and around the globe. After engaging in a thorough analysis of the practice of insider trading from the normative standpoints of economic efficiency, moral right and wrong, and virtue theory, he offers concrete proposals for much-needed reform.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108584029
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/07/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

John P. Anderson is a professor at the Mississippi College School of Law. He practiced in the areas of Securities Enforcement and White Collar Criminal Law at the Washington, DC law firms of Eversheds Sutherland and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr before entering academia. Anderson has won numerous teaching awards and has published several articles in top law reviews and peer review journals on the topics of insider trading, legal and political philosophy, and business ethics. He received a Ph.D. in Philosophy and a J.D. from the University of Virginia, and a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; Introduction; Part I. Law: 1. Early development of insider trading law in the United States; 2. Federal regulation and the modern era; 3. The problem of vagueness in the law; 4. Injustice, incoherence and irrationality – time for regime change; 5. The global experience; Part II. Ethics: 6. From Cicero to Laidlaw: two thousand years of debate over the propriety of information asymmetries; 7. The efficient, the right, the good, and legal reform; 8. The economics of insider trading; 9. Is insider trading morally wrong? 10. Greed, envy, and insider trading; Part III. Reform: 11. The path forward – an outline for reform; Index.

Editorial Reviews

‘This book provides a richly textured account of insider trading, offering historical, comparative, philosophical, and economic perspectives on this vexed practice. Anderson argues persuasively that the American law of insider trading is badly in need of reform, and offers compelling proposals for getting it back on its feet. This book will be an essential reference on insider trading law for years to come.' Eric Posner, Kirkland and Ellis Distinguished Professor of Law, Arthur and Esther Kane Research Chair, University of Chicago Law School

‘Why the United States - and increasingly, the world - regulates insider trading with such intensity has long been a mystery. In his new book, John P. Anderson helps explain that mystery, knitting together insights from sources that range from transaction cost economics to virtue ethics and philosophical pragmatism. The reader comes away not only knowing so much more about why this subject is such a challenge, but also how we might actually move forward to a more measured, coherent form of regulation.' Donald C. Langevoort, Thomas Aquinas Reynolds Professor of Law, Georgetown Law, Washington, DC

‘John P. Anderson's book is a timely and thoughtful exploration of the law against insider trading in securities markets. The discussion ranges widely with erudition and insight over the injustice of current law and economic, moral, and ethical perspectives, allowing the final chapter to outline a plan for reform.' Andrew N. Vollmer, Director of the John W. Glynn, Jr, Law and Business Program, University of Virginia School of Law

‘This is the book that we have needed for a long time. And I could easily see using this as the basis for a course.' J. Kelly Strader, Southwestern Law School, Los Angeles

‘Insider Trading: Law, Ethics, and Reform is a masterfully written book that takes readers on an amazing journey through the quagmire of the legal and ethical challenges facing insider trading enforcement; at the end of the road it offers ways to reform the current legal structure.' Ellen S. Podgor, Gary R. Trombley Family White-Collar Research Professor of Law, Stetson University College of Law

‘John P. Anderson takes a topic about which much ink has been spilled and asks provocative new questions about when and why information asymmetries in the capital markets raise legal, moral and ethical concerns. This book will provide fresh insights for even the most well-read insider trading scholar.' Jill Fisch, Perry Golkin Professor of Law, Co-Director, Institute for Law and Economics, University of Pennsylvania Law School

'Overall, a smart … well-researched book that should be included in any literature review on the subject of financial crime or malfeasance, particularly as it is the first one to come along in some time devoted to scholarship rather than sensationalism.' L. L. Hansen, Choice

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