The morality of the financial crisis: discuss

Who is to be blamed for the financial crisis, and who should bear the costs? UCL Laws student Aathmika Kularatnam discusses the highlights of a panel discussion on the subject held by the UCL Jurisprudence Review . The distinguished panel was composed of Professor Alan Dignam, Professor of Corporate Law at Queen Mary University of London; Mr Daniel Leighton, Head of the Public Interest Programme at DEMOS, a thinktank focused on power and politics; and Dr Saladin Meckled-Garcia, Director of the UCL Institute for Human Rights and Lecturer in Human Rights and Political Theory. The event was chaired by Mr John Springford, Economist and Senior Researcher at Social Market Foundation. The discussion focused on the moral responsibilities arising from the financial crisis: who is to be blamed? And who should bear the costs? Is it the consumers, the bankers, the Government? All speakers agreed that neither punishment nor human rights could assist in addressing such questions. On the other hand, all agreed that morality was a useful way of analysing the problem. Dr Saladin Meckled-Garcia focused on the notion of fairness, asking 'What is a 'fair' way to understand the crisis?? For Dr Meckled-Garcia, the solution lies in a 'fair' redistribution of the costs, one which the present situation does not reflect. Rather than taxing financial activities, cuts in public expenditure resulted in the general public bearing the costs of others? failures.