Corporate Governance in the Age of Elon Musk

Catalog description

This seminar examines the corporate law and securities regulation issues arising from Elon Musk's leadership of companies like Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter/X. Using legal opinions, filings, and academic theory, students will analyze Musk's conduct as a case study in the principal-agent problem, controlling shareholder doctrine, social media regulation, fiduciary duties, executive compensation, and CEO private misconduct. The course combines traditional doctrinal materials with current events, encouraging students to critically assess whether legal institutions adequately constrain powerful executives in public companies. Students will write a research paper suitable for the upper-level writing requirement.