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In July 2002, as a reaction to various corporate scandals, Congress passed the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002, commonly known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In signing the act, President Bush proudly declared that the U.S. government was enacting “the most far-reaching reforms of American business practices since the time of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.” With the implementation of the act, however, the immense costs of compliance have become apparent and business leaders question whether the act’s supposed benefits actually represent any real gain over the previous era.

At this AEI event, Professor Larry Ribstein, a scholar of corporate and securities law, and Professor Henry N. Butler, an expert on the economic analysis of law, will discuss their forthcoming monograph, The Sarbanes-Oxley Debacle: How to Fix It and What We’ve Learned (AEI Press, 2006). Richard Booth of the University of Maryland School of Law and AEI’s Alex J. Pollock and Peter J. Wallison will respond. Ted Frank, director of AEI’s Liability Project, will act as moderator.

The AEI Liability Project (www.liabilityproject.org) seeks to promote a better understanding of the scope and consequences of the liability crisis and to help ensure that political or legal reform efforts are aimed at the appropriate targets.