Baron de Lancey Lecture 2025 - Prof. Kimberly D. Krawiec

Professor Kimberly D. Krawiec from the University of Virginia School of Law delivered the 2025 Baron de Lancey lecture discussing "Repugnant transactions and taboo trades" — markets that are morally contested and sometimes even prohibited, such as sex work, commercial surrogacy, and the sale of organs, eggs, and sperm. She asked how we, as a society, decide what is up for sale and what is off-limits. The talk delved into these and other restricted trades. It identified how they are regulated by legal regimes as well as social norms, evaluate the consequences of different approaches, and explore potential paths forward.

About the Speaker: Professor Kimberly D. Krawiec holds the Charles O. Gregory Professorship of Law at the University of Virginia. Her current research analyses “taboo trades” — exchanges that are contested by society and, in some cases, forbidden altogether. She has written on commercial surrogacy, egg and sperm markets, and sex work. At the moment, much of her work is on incentives for organ donation. Another area of her research centres on the regulation of financial markets and business organizations. Prof. Krawiec has extensively examined the administrative process surrounding the Volcker Rule, a complex and highly contested provision of the Dodd-Frank Act. She has also researched corporate boards of directors. Through an ethnographic method, this work analyses directors’ views on the workings of the corporate boardroom and board relations with management, with a special emphasis on directors’ views on race and gender diversity in the boardroom. With a wealth of experience in commodity and derivatives law, she has also been a commentator for the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI) of the American Bar Association and has taught at top institutions including Duke, North Carolina, Harvard, and Northwestern, where she won the Robert Childres Award for Teaching Excellence.

The Baron de Lancey Lecture series is kindly supported by the Ver Heyden de Lancey Fund.