The Trajectory Of (corporate Law) Scholarship: An Inaugural Lecture Given In The University Of Cambridge October 2003

This page intentionally left blank T HE T RAJECTORY OF (C ORPORATE L AW ) S CHOLARSHIP Professor Cheffins’ lecture offers a path-breaking examination of potential trajectories for legal scholarship. Considerable attention is devoted to academic writing on law, but little has been said about the process by which the relevant literature evolves. This lecture focuses directly on the evolution of legal scholarship. It identifies five potential trajectories, revolving around concepts such as ‘progress’, ‘paradigms’, the marketplace for ideas, intellectual cycles, and fads and fashions. Professor Cheffins offers a summary of each trajectory and then tests the propositions he has advanced by means of a case study dealing with corporate law. He argues that scholarly trends in law develop in a manner that is at least partially consistent with each of the trajectories he identifies, but acknowledges that none captures fully the dynamics at work. B RIAN C HEFFINS has been, since 1998, the S.J. Berwin Professor of Corporate Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge. He was a member of the Faculty of Law at the University of British Columbia from 1986 to 1997. He has held visiting appointments at Duke, Harvard. Oxford and Stanford. Professor Cheffins is author of Company Law: Theory, Structure and Operation and numerous articles on corporate law and corporate governance. He was awarded a John S. Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 2002. Brian R. Cheffins THE TRAJECTORY OF (CORPORATE LAW) SCHOLARSHIP An Inaugural Lecture given in the University of Cambridge October 2003 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521606394 © Cambridge University Press, 2004 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2004 ISBN-13 ISBN-10 978-0-511-26438-2 eBook (EBL) 0-511-26438-0 eBook (EBL) ISBN-13 ISBN-10 978-0-521-60639-4 paperback 0-521-60639-X paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. THE TRAJECTORY OF (CORPORATE LAW) SCHOLARSHIP CONTENTS Page I. Introduction 1 II. Legal scholarship trajectories: an overview 4 A. B. C. D. E. F. The ‘cumulative’ model: ‘progress’ towards ‘truth’ Paradigm shifts: Kuhn and legal scholarship Market fo