Martha Stewart and the Forbidden Fruit: A New Story of Eve

32 Pages Posted: 15 Oct 2010 Last revised: 11 Nov 2010

Date Written: 2009

Abstract

This paper narrates a biblical story - Eve’s ingestion of the forbidden fruit - and analogizes it to a recent business law story that I explore in my scholarship and use in my teaching - Martha Stewart’s sale of ImClone stock as alleged insider trading. The analogy, while imperfect, helps expose interesting questions about the descriptive and normative content of U.S. insider trading law and related legal process issues. Although many of the points made in the paper (and the related details and examples presented) can be and have been explored or used in other ways, I contend that the juxtaposition of Eve’s story with Martha’s has utility in illustrating desirable and undesirable attributes of U.S. insider trading regulation, in motivating related scholarship, and in teaching insider trading theory, doctrine, and enforcement under Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5.

Keywords: Insider Trading, Securities Regulation, Martha Stewart, Bible, Eve, Law And Literature, Narrative, Teaching

JEL Classification: D82, G14, G18, G30, G38, G39, K20, K22, K29, K42, L14, M10

Suggested Citation

Heminway, Joan MacLeod, Martha Stewart and the Forbidden Fruit: A New Story of Eve (2009). Michigan State Law Review, Vol. 2009, p. 1017, Winter 2009, University of Tennessee Legal Studies Research Paper No. 126, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1692173

Joan MacLeod Heminway (Contact Author)

University of Tennessee College of Law ( email )

1505 West Cumberland Avenue
Knoxville, TN 37996
United States
865-974-3813 (Phone)
865-974-0681 (Fax)

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