Business & Entrepreneurship

Fatou Bensouda, deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), will discuss the current issues facing the ICC at noon Thursday, Sept. 22, in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall. She also will receive the 2011 World Peace Through Law Award from the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute.

A new study by a finance professor at Washington University in St. Louis finds that the amount of stock options in a CEO’s compensation package can result in an increase in risk-taking by company leaders. Such a finding seems obvious at first blush, but uncovering clean empirical evidence always has been illusive.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s “Ponzi scheme” charge and Florida Sen. Mark Rubio’s assertion that Social Security is unsustainable recycle baseless attacks that go back as far as the 1930s, says Merton C. Bernstein, LLB, a nationally recognized expert on Social Security. “These are attempts to muster political support by appealing to long-held prejudices to satisfy those who never accepted Social Security,” Bernstein says. “To use them as guides to public policy would undermine our country’s most successful family protection program.”

The Administrative Law Section of the American Bar Association (ABA) recently named Ronald Levin, JD, the William R. Orthwein Distinguished Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, the 2011 Volunteer of the Year. Levin has served as the section’s chair and as the ABA’s adviser to the drafting committee to revise the Model State Administrative Procedure Act.

MBA students Nader Ben Younes (left) and Dieu Nguyen look at the “Inspire” board at the “Share at the Stairs” exhibit in Simon Hall. The display, located near the main staircase in Simon Hall, is designed to bring to life Olin Business School’s mission of “Create Knowledge, Inspire Individuals and Transform Business.”

The Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies will kick off its two business plan competitions on Thursday, Sept. 8. Combined, the Olin Cup and YouthBridge Social Enterprise and Innovation Competitions will award more than $200,000 in funding for new commercial and social ventures.

Mahendra Gupta, PhD, dean and the Geraldine J. and Robert L. Virgil Professor of Accounting and Management, serves up a hamburger during the Olin Business School’s annual back to school cookout in the Simon Hall courtyard Aug. 30. The barbecue, held the first day of classes, welcomed business students to the new academic year and featured food and live music.

Labor Day may celebrate the historical contributions of the American labor movement, but the future of the movement is in question. “Unions are under siege,” says labor and employment law expert Marion Crain, JD, the Wiley B. Rutledge Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis. “In the public sector, governors seeking to slash budgets are de-authorizing state labor laws that govern the organizing and bargaining rights of state employees. In the private sector, both the federal legislation that supports union action and the administrative body that enforces the law are under attack. Union density is on a dramatic downswing.” At the same time, wage inequality has not been higher since the Great Depression.

The International Criminal Court, civil rights class actions, gun rights, migration and food security are among topics that will be discussed during the fall lineup for the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law’s fourteenth annual Public Interest Law & Policy Speakers Series. The series kicks off Tuesday, Sept. 6, with “Mea Culpa: The Role of Apologies in Legal Decisionmaking,” by Jennifer Robbennolt, JD, PhD.

The violence against peaceful protesters in Libya and Syria drives home the need for an international convention for the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity, says Leila Nadya Sadat, JD, international law expert and director of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University School of Law. “The concerted efforts of the international community have helped to bring about a resolution of the Libyan situation, but the situation in Syria continues to deteriorate,” she says. “Reports of civilian roundups in Syria are reminiscent of Nazi roundups of the Jews during WWII. History shows that widespread human rights abuses lead to ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and even genocide.”