In its annual meeting this month, the American Law and Economics Association elected Professor Lucian Bebchuk as its president.  He will serve in this role until the Association’s annual meeting next spring.

In accordance with the Association’s traditions, Bebchuk delivered a presidential address at the ALEA’s Annual Meeting last weekend entitled Self-Regulation and the Public Corporation.  The address reviewed and reflected on Bebchuk’s work on the subject over the years.  This work includes, among other pieces, Bebchuk’s articles The Debate on Contractual Freedom in Corporate Law; Limiting Contractual Freedom in Corporate Law: The Desirable Constraints on Charter Amendments; Federalism and the Corporation: The Desirable Limits on State Competition in Corporate Law; A New Approach to Takeover Law and Regulatory Competition; Federal Intervention to Enhance Shareholder Choice; Optimal Defaults for Corporate Law Evolution; Asymmetric Information and the Choice of Corporate Governance Arrangements; Why Firms Adopt Antitakeover Arrangements; Executive Compensation as an Agency Problem; and The Case for Increasing Shareholder Power.