Break ‘em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money

Leeds-Mannheim Online Seminar Series in Business Law 2022

Together with the Department of Law, University of Mannheim, the Centre for Business Law and Practice (University of Leeds) continues in 2022 the Leeds/Mannheim Online Seminar Series, which was launched last year. This seminar is the second of four that will take place in May, June and July 2022.

Abstract:

Every facet of American life is being overtaken by big platform monopolists like Facebook, Google, and Bayer (which has merged with the former agricultural giant Monsanto), resulting in a greater concentration of wealth and power than we've seen since the Gilded Age. They are evolving into political entities that often have more influence than the actual government, bending state and federal legislatures to their will and even creating arbitration courts that circumvent the US justice system. How can we recover our freedom from these giants? Anti-corruption scholar and activist Zephyr Teachout has the answer: Break 'Em Up. This book is a clarion call for liberals and leftists looking to find a common cause. Teachout makes a compelling case that monopolies are the root cause of many of the issues that today's progressives care about; they drive economic inequality, harm the planet, limit the political power of average citizens, and historically-disenfranchised groups bear the brunt of their shameful and irresponsible business practices. In order to build a better future, we must eradicate monopolies from the private sector and create new safeguards that prevent new ones from seizing power. Through her expert analysis of monopolies in several sectors and their impact on courts, journalism, inequality, and politics, Teachout offers a concrete path toward thwarting these enemies of working Americans and reclaiming our democracy before it’s too late.

Biography:

Zephyr Teachout is Senior Counsel for Economic Justice at the NYS Office of Attorney General, where she is on leave from Fordham Law School. At Fordham she is a Law Professor. She received her BA from Yale in English and then graduated summa cum laude from Duke Law School, where she was the Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review. She also received an MA in Political Science from Duke. She clerked for Chief Judge Edward R. Becker of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. She was a death penalty defense lawyer at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in North Carolina, and co-founded a non-profit dedicated to providing trial experience to new law school graduates. She is known for her pioneering work in internet organizing, and was the first national Director of the Sunlight Foundation. She has written dozens of law review articles and essays and two books. She ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination of the Governor of New York in 2014, and for Congress's 19th Congressional District in 2016.

Moderator: Dr Or Brook (University of Leeds)

This one-hour event will take place via Zoom and will be recorded. Registration for this event will be understood as indicating consent to the talk being recorded.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/x/break-em-up-recovering-our-freedom-from-big-ag-big-tech-and-big-money-tickets-330632630097