Visiting Researcher, Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School
Professor of Law, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law
jsnelson@law.harvard.edu
J.S. Nelson is a professor of law, author, and business ethics expert with a deep, diverse background bridging law and business school. She is a Visiting Researcher with the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Professor Nelson’s work explores the intersection of corporate law, white collar crime, and business ethics. She concentrates on the way that legal rules shape ethical behavior within business organizations and the impact of different frameworks on large-scale corporate wrongdoing.
Professor Nelson’s research has both public and academic impact. Professor Nelson is a frequent media commentator, appearing on venues such as The Today Show and NBC News Now. She has been published in both legal and business journals, including the Harvard Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Cardozo Law Review, U.C. Davis Law Review, Berkeley Business Law Journal, Journal of Management Inquiry, Journal of Legal Studies in Business, and the Academy of Management Learning and Education journal. Professor Nelson has received numerous awards for her work from the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, including its 2017 Distinguished Proceedings Paper and Holmes-Cardozo awards, 2016 Ralph Bunche prize for Outstanding International Paper, and its 2015 Outstanding Proceedings award. She is a finalist for the 2022 Ralph Bunche Outstanding International Paper and Holmes-Cardozo awards.
Her book, Business Ethics: What Everyone Needs to Know, was co-authored with the late Lynn Stout, and published by the Oxford University Press.
Education
B.A., Yale University
J.D., Harvard Law School, Harvard Law Review, Editor and Supreme Court Co-Chair
Research interests
Corporate law, corporate governance, white collar crime, large-scale corporate wrongdoing, compliance, behavioral ethics, law and management, workplace surveillance, negotiated management systems
Selected publications
- Business Ethics: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford U. Press, 2022) (co-authorship with Lynn A. Stout).
- The Future of the Company and Its Liabilities: Watching the ESG Space, in The Edward Elgar Research Handbook on Corporate Liability (Martin Petrin & Christian Witting, eds., Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming).
- Compliance as Management (“The Dark Side of Compliance”), in Cambridge Handbook of Compliance (D. Daniel Sokol & Benjamin van Rooij, eds., Cambridge U. Press, 2021).
- Foreword to 2021 Norman J. Shachoy Symposium: Practical Ethics in Corporate Law: The Science, Instruction and “Real-World” Application, 66 L. Rev. 875 (2022).
- Bringing Ethics Back to Friedman’s Call to Purpose for the Next 50 Years, in Milton Friedman 50 Years Later, A Reevaluation (Luigi Zingales, Jana Kasperkevic, & Asher Schechter, eds., ProMarket, Stigler Ctr. for the Study of the Econ. and the State, U. Chi., Booth Sch. of Bus., 2020).
- Cryptocommunity Currencies, 105 Cornell L. Rev. 3, 101 (2020).
- Management Culture & Surveillance (Berle XI Symposium: Law and Corporate Culture), 43 Seattle L. Rev. 2, 631 (2020).
- Disclosure-Driven Crime, 52 C. Davis L. Rev. 3, 1487 (2019).
- Paper Dragon Thieves, 105 L.J. 4, 871 (2017).