Digital Commons Network^™

Swot Matrix For London Market Group, Steven Slezak

Steven Slezak

No abstract provided.

The Internet Of Things And Wearable Technology: Addressing Privacy And Security Concerns Without Derailing Innovation, Adam D. Thierer

Adam Thierer

This paper highlights some of the opportunities presented by the rise of the so-called “Internet of Things” and wearable technology in particular, and encourages policymakers to allow these technologies to develop in a relatively unabated fashion. As with other new and highly disruptive digital technologies, however, the Internet of Things and wearable tech will challenge existing social, economic, and legal norms. In particular, these technologies raise a variety of privacy and safety concerns. Other technical barriers exist that could hold back IoT and wearable tech — including disputes over technical standards, system interoperability, and access to adequate spectrum to facilitate …

A Preliminary Look At State Structures For Regulating Financial Services, Elizabeth F. Brown

Elizabeth F Brown

Within the past thirty-five years approximately fifty nations have consolidated their financial regulatory agencies into either a single integrated agency or into two semi-integrated agencies. The United States has resisted this trend, due in part to a concern that the costs of such significant consolidation would exceed its benefits. The existing studies that compare the costs of the consolidated regulators around the world with the United States regime have often been discounted because they have been unable to control for differences in culture and regulatory intensity between those other countries and the United States. This article attempts to address this …

The Market In Unmatured Tort Claims: Twenty-Five Years Later, Stephen G. Marks

Stephen G Marks

Twenty-five years ago, in 1989, Professor Robert Cooter, writing in the Virginia Law Review, proposed changes in the law that would facilitate the development of a market in unmatured tort claims. On this twenty-fifth anniversary of this groundbreaking paper, it is fitting to reexamine this proposal, speculate on why it has not been adopted, and to explore whether revisions in the proposal might lead to greater legislative acceptance. In this paper I reexamine the proposal as to its likely intended and unintended effects. This article argues that, for such a market in unmatured tort claims to work, three modifications must …

Mortgage Securitization 426 Working Paper: Is It An Insurance Product?, Symphony Music

Symphony Music

This discussion highlights informed interaction between two knowledgeable parties about whether the residential mortgage asset backed securitization process involves the creation of an insurance product. Although an initial conclusion reached by an Insurance Examiner that it is not “insurance,” that same Examiner opened the door that it could be viewed as “insurance.” If it is determined that insurance is involved, the obligation to collect taxes falls onto the Connecticut State Department of Revenue Services, the requirement to collect balance sheets falls onto the Insurance Department, and the decision to prosecute originators for perpetuating a fraud on bank loan consumers falls …

Is The Middle East Moving Toward Islamism After The Arab Spring? The Case Study Of The Egyptian Commercial And Financial Laws, Radwa S. Elsaman Ms., Ahmed Eldakak Mr.

Radwa S Elsaman

The parliamentary elections that followed the Egyptian Revolution witnessed an unprecedented success for Islamists as they secured an overwhelming majority of seats, suggesting that they may intend to amend many laws to bring it in compliance with the Islamic Shari’a. This article addresses legal challenges that will face the new majority if they decide to Islamize laws and regulations related to business and finance. Particularly, the article discusses Islamic money theory, trade, banking systems, consumer protection, insurance, competition, and tax systems. The article analyzes the Egyptian business and finance laws to examine whether they comply with Islamic law. It then …

Gender Factor In The Insurance Law: Recent Development Of The Ecj In Context With The U.S. Approach, Vadim Mantrov

Vadim Mantrov

This essay discusses recent development of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) on lawfulness of the use of the gender factor in calculation of insurance premiums and benefits. After summarizing effective regulation of the United States and the European Union, the essay provides not only relevant facts and reasoning of the ECJ but also critical review of this reasoning and reveals differences of approaches between the U.S. Supreme court and the ECJ. Still, it concludes that the ECJ left door open for possible adaptations for lawfulness of the use of gender factor in future.

Self Insurance And Insurance Demand Under Self-Deception, Ram Ranjan

Ram Ranjan

A dynamic model of self insurance and market insurance demand against uncertain natural hazards is developed where agents incur emotional costs when the true information about potential future catastrophes becomes known. Agents purposefully ignore the incoming signals about future hazards in order to avoid finding out the true information. Faced with the emotional costs associated with true information revelation, self-deception through true information avoidance effort may be the optimal strategy to maximize current and future utility. Government interventions for complementing private risk mitigation and adaptation through incentives and regulations may have a varying influence on such agents exhibiting emotional costs.

Shirking The Duty To Defend In Florida: Is Assignment The Exception To Argonaut?, Matthew J. Jowanna

Matthew J. Jowanna

A lawsuit is filed by a plaintiff and the defendant is served. The defendant has a drawer full of liability insurance policies and, therefore, the insured defendant sends a copy of the served complaint to any and all insurance carriers that may provide coverage for the claim. The insured defendant then receives a few coverage denials for reasons such as the event at issue did not occur within a certain policy period or that the insured’s private automobile policy does not provide coverage for a commercial general liability claim. In any event, the denials appear to be valid - so …

Shirking The Duty To Defend In Florida: Is Assignment The Exception To Argonaut?, Matthew J. Jowanna

Matthew J. Jowanna

A lawsuit is filed by a plaintiff and the defendant is served. The defendant has a drawer full of liability insurance policies and, therefore, the insured defendant sends a copy of the served complaint to any and all insurance carriers that may provide coverage for the claim. The insured defendant then receives a few coverage denials for reasons such as the event at issue did not occur within a certain policy period or that the insured’s private automobile policy does not provide coverage for a commercial general liability claim. In any event, the denials appear to be valid -so the …

Removing A Garnishment Proceeding To Federal Court May Be Easier Than You Think, Thomas M. Wood

Thomas M Wood

Garnishment proceedings commencing after even a year of litigation between non-diverse parties in state court actions are still removable in most jurisdictions. Two recent district court opinions from Alabama and Mississippi re-affirm this prevailing view. The threshold question these courts have faced is whether the garnishment action is separate and independent, or merely ancillary, to the main civil action against the alleged insured. Here is a typical example:

A sues B in tort. B may seek insurance coverage from C, and C denies coverage for B but does not elect to file a action for declaratory judgment on the coverage …

A Concurrent Mess And A Call For Clarity In First-Party Property Insurance Coverage Analysis, Mark M. Bell

Mark M Bell

The attached article is the first article to clearly and plainly describe the history and genesis of concurrent causation as well as the development of anti-concurrent policy exclusions. After describing this unique history, the article argues that it is time to re-analyze concurrent causation questions and advocates for a categorical analysis for addressing “concurrent causation” questions.

I Contratti Di Assicurazione Fra Codice Civile E Codice Delle Assicurazioni, Valerio Sangiovanni

Valerio Sangiovanni

No abstract provided.

Stoney Road Out Of Eden: The Struggle To Recover Insurance For Armenian Genocide Deaths And Its Implications For The Future Of State Authority, Contract Rights, And Human Rights, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Jeffrey W Stempel

The Armenian Genocide during the waning days of the Ottoman Empire continues to represent one of history’s underappreciated atrocities. Comparatively few people even know about the 1.5 million deaths or the government-sponsored extermination attempt that provided Hitler with a blueprint for the Nazi Holocaust. Unlike the Holocaust, however, there was never any accounting demanded of those responsible for the Armenian Genocide. In the aftermath of both tragedies, insurers seized upon the resulting disarray and victimization to deny life insurance benefits owed as a result of the killings. American-based litigation to vindicate rights under the Armenian polices faced substantial legal and …

Reevaluating Standardized Insurance Policies, Daniel Benjamin Schwarcz

Daniel Benjamin Schwarcz

This Article empirically debunks the common claim that homeowners insurance policies do not vary across different insurance carriers. It demonstrates that carriers' homeowners policies differ radically with respect to numerous important coverage provisions. It also reports that a substantial majority of these deviations produce decreases in the amount of coverage relative to the presumptive industry standard, though some deviations increase coverage. Additionally, the Article describes the surprising absence of any mechanisms by which even informed and vigilant consumers could comparison shop among carriers on the basis of differences in coverage. It closes by reviewing various regulatory and judicial options for …

Healthcare In Cuba, Carmen M. Cusack J.D.

Carmen M Cusack

Poor Americans who lack health-insurance or have little opportunity to access specialized or non-emergency medical treatment in the U.S. should be permitted by the U.S. State Department to spend money in Cuba in order to receive inexpensive medical treatment, and should be allowed to stay (and spend) in Cuba as long as necessary in order to receive inexpensive medical treatment. If Americans were permitted by an exception in the Helms-Burton Act to spend money in Cuba and visit for medical purposes, then Cuba would likely treat these Americans for a very low cost. This can be argued because 1) Cuba …

Missclassifying The Insurance Policy: The Unforced Errors Of Unilateral Contract Characterization, Jeffrey W. Stempel, Hazel Glenn Beh

Jeffrey W Stempel

Insurance policies are traditionally classified as unilateral or “reverse-unilateral” contracts, a characterization we find largely incorrect, with problematic consequences for adjudication of insurance coverage disputes. In addition to the general difficulties attending the unilateral classification, the concept as applied to insurance policies is not only unhelpful but also introduces error and inconsistency into the litigation of insurance controversies. In particular, the unilateral view tends toward excessive formalism and focus on so-called “conditions” precedent to coverage, eschewing material breach analysis and encouraging needless forfeitures as well as unwisely removing the concept of anticipatory repudiation and corresponding remedy from insurance law. Categorizing …

The Supreme Court's Assault On Litigation: Why (And How) It Could Be Good For Health Law, Abigail R. Moncrieff

Abigail R. Moncrieff

In recent years, the Supreme Court has narrowed or eliminated private rights of action in many legal regimes, much to the chagrin of the legal academy. That trend, although certainly not limited to health law, has had a significant impact on the field; the Court’s decisions have eliminated the private enforcement mechanism for at least three important healthcare regimes: Medicaid, employer-sponsored insurance, and medical devices. In a similar trend outside the courts, state legislatures have capped noneconomic and punitive damages for medical malpractice litigation, weakening the tort system’s deterrent capacity in those states. This Article points out that the trend …

Negotiating In The Shadow Of “Bad Faith” Refusal To Settle: A Game Theory Model Of Medical Malpractice Pre-Trial Settlements And Insurance Limits, Theodore H. Frank, Marie Gryphon

Theodore H. Frank

Recent empirical studies of Texas data by Hyman et al, Zeiler et al, and Silver et al suggest that insurance limits affect settlements of medical malpractice cases. Writing separately, Silver argues that insurance limits act as a de facto cap on malpractice payouts, that plaintiffs are being underpaid as a result, and that therefore legislative caps on damages are unnecessary. But this hypothesis is inconsistent with the data, which indicates that forty-seven percent of cases in which plaintiffs obtain verdicts above policy limits are subsequently settled above policy limits. We propose to reconcile the data by accounting for the effects …

Lifting The Veil: Pressures Mount For Climate Change Disclosures, Richard Faulk

Richard Faulk

Measures from Sarbanes-Oxley to climate change legislation will pervasively transform the manner in which American businesses relate to shareholders and consumers. Capping a month of extraordinary changes, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners adopted a rule that mandates broad disclosures by insurance companies regarding the impact of climate change on their financial stability – thereby enlisting the insurance industry as a ‘‘partner’’ in the enforcement of global and national climate change policies.

Rethinking Support For Adoptive Parents, Mary Eschelbach Hansen

Mary Eschelbach Hansen

Since 1980, the U.S. government has offered subsidies to encourage surrogate parents to adopt children who are in foster care and cannot be reunited with their birth parents. Despite some success, the subsidy program has not attracted enough parents to meet the needs of the children. The critical problem is that the subsidy program does not adequately recognize the difficulty of assessing the child’s future needs; therefore, the subsidy does not adequately reduce the substantial financial risk associated with caring for a child adopted from foster care. A supplementary insurance program could attract new adoptive families and could also improve …

The Development Of International Norms For Insurance Regulation, Elizabeth F. Brown

Elizabeth F Brown

The development of international norms for insurance has not progressed as far or as deeply as the development of international norms for banking. Several factors have affected this process. First, the efforts to develop such norms are relatively new. The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (“IAIS”) has existed for less than fifteen years while the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has existed for over thirty years. Second, the membership of the IAIS makes it harder for that organization to achieve consensus on principles and standards than for the Basel Committee. The IAIS has members from almost 140 nations, including both …

Energy Policy, Intellectual Property And Technology Transfer To Address Climate Change, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

A weather beaten economy has become a wake up call. The International Energy Agency predicts that carbon emissions will rise 130 percent and oil demand will rise 70 percent by 2050. A sound energy policy that addresses climate change relies upon widespread transfer and implementation of environmentally sound technology. Multilateral cooperation can achieve environmentally sound technology transfer within in a meaningful time frame to address climate change.

The Tyranny Of The Multitude Is A Multiplied Tyranny: Is The United States Financial Regulatory Structure Undermining U.S. Competitiveness?, Elizabeth F. Brown

Elizabeth F Brown

This Article examines whether the U.S. regulatory structure undermined U.S. competitiveness with foreign financial markets, particularly the United Kingdom's markets.

Contra Proferentem: The Allure Of Ambiguous Boilerplate, Michelle Boardman

Michelle Boardman

No abstract provided.

Known Unknowns: The Illusion Of Terrorism Insurance, Michelle Boardman

Michelle Boardman

No abstract provided.

Rearranging Deck Chairs On The Titanic: Why The Incarceration Of Individuals With Serious Mental Illness Violates Public Health, Ethical, And Constitutional Principles And Therefore Cannot Be Made Right By Piecemeal Changes To The Insanity Defense, Jennifer Bard

Jennifer Bard

The author argues that the problem of adjudicating the mentally ill who commit crimes is too large a societal issue to be resolved by refining the insanity defense. Since this is a threat to the public's health, it is fair to describe the current situation as a public health crisis. First, by not providing adequate mental health resources we create conditions in which people with mental illness find themselves in situations where due to their illness they have the opportunity to commit criminal acts which are causally related to the impairment of their thought process. Second, when people with mental …

E Pluribus Unum -- Out Of Many, One: Why The United States Needs A Single Financial Services Agency, Elizabeth F. Brown

Elizabeth F Brown

The United States needs to consolidate the over 115 existing state and federal agencies that regulate banking, securities and insurance firms and their products and services into a single, federal financial services agency; a U.S. Financial Services Agency (“US FSA”). The US FSA would be able to more effectively regulate the U.S. financial services industry than the existing regulatory regime. The current U.S. financial regulatory regime suffers from a range of problems, including an inability to anticipate and plan for future financial crises, an inability by regulators to quickly adapt to market innovations and developments, inconsistent regulations for financial products …

Mental Health Parity Issue Briefs, Ardis Hanson

Ardis Hanson

Six issue briefs summarize the key issues facing the state of Florida in 1999 in the development of mental health parity legislation. The briefs outline the basic issues, potential benefits, and experiences of other states that have developed and/or implemented parity legislation covering behavioral health services, including mental health, alcohol, and/or substance abuse services. In addition, the briefs contain a discussion of the important issues of how managed care and insurance benefit design potentially impact the costs of establishing parity. The six briefs are provided as one pdf document. The document is 6 pages long. Pages include: "Highlights of Recent …

Regression Analysis In Health Services Research: The Use Of Dummy Variables, Paula Diehr, Lincoln Nayak Polissar

Paula Diehr

Dummy variables frequently are used in regression analysis but often in an incorrect fashion. A brief review of examples in the medical care literature showed that the interpretation of dummy variable regression coefficients and their significance was often incorrect or unclear. This article shows how dummy variables can be used and assessed properly. The importance of testing for the joint effect of a group of dummy variables is stressed. It also gives a standard and useful extension of the dummy variable technique to testing for the effect of collections of variables.