Course descriptions represent courses typically offered during the academic year. While the School endeavors to offer as many of the courses as possible, not all courses are offered every semester. It is important to check with individual departments prior to scheduling classes to determine the availability of courses for any given semester.

The Wharton School and the University of Pennsylvania reserve the right to make changes affecting policies, fees, curricula, or any other matters announced here.

LGST 920 Ethics in Business and Economics
The seminar explores the growing academic literature in business ethics. It also provides participants an opportunity to investigate an ethical issue of their choosing in some depth, using their field of specialty as context. The seminar assumes no previous exposure to business ethics. Different theories and frameworks for investigating issues will be discussed. In turn, these theories will be applied to a range of issues, both domestic and international. Such issues include: corruption in host countries, the management of values in modern corporations, the ethical status of the corporation, ethics in sophisticated financial transactions (such as leveraged derivative transactions), and gender discrimination in the context of cultural differences. Literature not only from business ethics, but from professional and applied ethics, law, and organizational behavior will be discussed. Often, guest speakers will address the seminar. At the discretion of the class, special topics of interest to the class will be examined. Students will be expected to write and present a major paper dealing with a current issue within their major field. The course is open to students across fields, and provides integration of ideas across multiple business disciplines.

LGST 921 Foundations of Business Law
This course will introduce students to basic jurisprudential discussions and debates that relate to understanding business in society. Topics will include a general overview of the nature of law and its relationship to ethics; theories of contract, torts, and property; criminal law as it applies to business situations; and theories of the business enterprise and its regulation. Selected topics will also be chosen in accordance with the interest of participants in the seminar.

LGST 922 Human Rights Law and International Business
The seminar will explore how international human rights law is increasingly being treated as setting universal standards that govern the conduct of international business with the aim of promoting a critical awareness of the problems that this entails. Students will acquire a grasp of various theories and cases involving the expansion of human rights law to cover corporations, as well as the ongoing controversies over the nature of the human rights responsibilities that should be incumbent on international business. Seminar participants will be challenged to formulate their own positions regarding this crucial development.

LGST Doctoral Pro-Seminar
The purpose of the pro-seminar is to map out the basic domain of business ethics. The seminar brings in prominent scholars from business ethics who will provide an overview of their primary research area along with a discussion of their current research agenda. Topics may include behavioral ethics, ethics in finance, ethics in marketing, stakeholder theory and strategy, international ethics, decision-making models, corporate citizenship, and virtue theory. During the semester, each student will pick a research topic of personal interest, give a presentation, and write a paper on that topic. The goal will be to produce a paper that will be submitted to an appropriate business ethics journal.