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Articles 1 - 30 of 40
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A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp
A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp
ExpressO
The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.
Confidential Informants In Private Litigation: Balancing Interests In Anonymity And Disclosure, Ethan D. Wohl
Confidential Informants In Private Litigation: Balancing Interests In Anonymity And Disclosure, Ethan D. Wohl
ExpressO
Heightened pleading standards and limits on discovery in private securities fraud actions make confidential informants crucial in many cases. While courts have widely recognized the importance of confidential informants and the need to protect them from retaliation, they have not applied consistent standards for how informants must be identified in pleadings, and have failed to take into account substantial bodies of relevant caselaw when deciding whether to require that informants’ names be disclosed in discovery.
This article offers a framework for when and how confidential informants should be identified, taking into account the competing interests in anonymity and disclosure. It …
A Proposal To Revise The Sec Instructions For Reporting Waivers Of Corporate Codes Of Ethics For Conflicts Of Interest, Madoka Mori
ExpressO
Enron’s collapse focused attention on the application of that company’s Code of Ethics to related-party transactions. That focus produced Section 406 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which intends to regulate conflicts of interest between officers and their companies through codes of ethics that public companies adopt. Pursuant to SOX Section 406(a), the Securities Exchange Commission issued new regulations requiring each public company to disclose whether it has a code of ethics, and if a company has not adopted such a code, to explain why it has chosen not to do so. SEC rules also require each company that has …
China’S Market Participation: The Case For A Paradigm Shift In Analyzing China’S Capital Market Regulation, David P. Finn
China’S Market Participation: The Case For A Paradigm Shift In Analyzing China’S Capital Market Regulation, David P. Finn
ExpressO
This paper deals with recent reforms governing China’s state owned enterprises and how those reforms affect both the domestic and international markets
Re-Thinking Securities Regulation: A Comparative Study Of Asx, Nyse, And Sgx , Benedict Sheehy
Re-Thinking Securities Regulation: A Comparative Study Of Asx, Nyse, And Sgx , Benedict Sheehy
ExpressO
This article approaches the issue of securities regulation starting with an examination of the nature and role of markets and financial markets. It next outlines the various arguments for and against regulation, and then looks at approaches taken by markets and their regulators. The approaches are government regulation, self-regulation and co-regulation, and the structural changes via demutualization and corporate governance. With this background, it turns to examine how these approaches have played out in the markets themselves. The article surveys the regulatory aspects of the ASX, NYSE and the SGX, and reviews the regulatory and financial performance of the markets. …
The Use And Misuse Of Disclosure As A Regulatory System, Paula J. Dalley
The Use And Misuse Of Disclosure As A Regulatory System, Paula J. Dalley
ExpressO
Over the past several decades, legislators and regulators have increasingly turned to disclosure schemes, rather than substantive regulation, to accomplish regulatory goals. Most of these schemes are either expressly or impliedly based on the disclosure-based regulatory system established by the securities acts, which is primarily intended to provide information to traders in an established market and thereby to enhance the operation of the market. A secondary purpose of the securities acts is to alter the behavior of firms and individuals through the operation of the market. Other disclosure schemes usually have similar purposes, but they rarely operate in a market …
Predatory Structured Finance, Christopher L. Peterson
Predatory Structured Finance, Christopher L. Peterson
ExpressO
Predatory lending is a real, pervasive, and destructive problem as demonstrated by record settlements, jury awards, media exposes, and a large body of empirical scholarship. Currently the national debate over predatory mortgage lending is shifting to the controversial question of who should bear liability for predatory lending practices. In today’s subprime mortgage market, originators and brokers quickly assign home loans through a complex and opaque series of transactions involving as many as a dozen different strategically organized companies. Loans are typically transferred into large pools, and then income from those loans is “structured” to appeal to different types of investors. …
Explaining The Value Of Transactional Lawyering, Steven L. Schwarcz
Explaining The Value Of Transactional Lawyering, Steven L. Schwarcz
ExpressO
This article attempts, empirically, to explain the value that lawyers add when acting as counsel to parties in business transactions. Contrary to existing scholarship, which is based mostly on theory, this article shows that transactional lawyers add value primarily by reducing regulatory costs, thereby challenging the reigning models of transactional lawyers as “transaction cost engineers” and “reputational intermediaries.” This new model not only helps inform contract theory but also reveals a profoundly different vision than existing models for the future of legal education and the profession.
Compensation Representatives: A Prudent Solution To Excessive Ceo Pay, Lawton W. Hawkins
Compensation Representatives: A Prudent Solution To Excessive Ceo Pay, Lawton W. Hawkins
ExpressO
Currently, CEO pay is determined by a company’s board of directors, subject to limited shareholder approval in certain circumstances. However, as Lucian Bebchuk and Jesse Fried have demonstrated, boards of directors and CEOs do not necessarily engage in real arms length bargaining over CEO pay. Instead, CEOs may exert managerial power to extract economic rents above and beyond what they could have obtained in an arms length negotiation. To address the problem, Bebchuk and Fried have proposed that large shareholders be allowed to nominate candidates for the board, and that companies be required to pay the expenses for any proxy …
The Corporate Governance Industry, Paul Rose
The Corporate Governance Industry, Paul Rose
ExpressO
This paper considers the role of the corporate governance industry as a voluntary regulator. The corporate governance industry influences (and in some cases effectively controls) the vote of trillions of dollars of equity, and affects the governance policies and fortunes of thousands of companies through proxy voting recommendations and governance ratings. This paper considers the increasing influence of the corporate governance industry, and argues that potential conflicts of interest within some governance firms cast doubt on the reliability of their proxy advice and governance ratings. Additionally, governance firms may be overstepping their expertise in proxy voting decisions and in governance …
Corporate Governance And The New Hedge Fund Activism: An Empirical Analysis, Thomas W. Briggs
Corporate Governance And The New Hedge Fund Activism: An Empirical Analysis, Thomas W. Briggs
ExpressO
Hedge funds are not normal institutional investors. They launch proxy fights for corporate control. Their recent successes and wolf pack tactics have garnered headlines but leave us with a question: what does hedge fund activism mean for corporate governance in the United States? This Article undertakes a legal, empirical, and theoretical study in an effort to answer this questioin. The heart of the Article is an empirical study of obtainable instances of hedge fund activism during 2005 and the 2006 proxy season. The Article starts by showing that the SEC opened the door to hedge fund activism when it stopped …
Reassessing Damages In Securities Fraud Class Actions, Elizabeth C. Burch
Reassessing Damages In Securities Fraud Class Actions, Elizabeth C. Burch
ExpressO
No coherent doctrinal statement exists for calculating open-market damages for securities fraud class actions. Instead, courts have tried in vain to fashion common-law deceit and misrepresentation remedies to fit open-market fraud. The result is a relatively ineffective system with a hallmark feature: unpredictable damage awards. This poses a significant fraud deterrence problem from both a practical and a theoretical standpoint.
In 2005, the Supreme Court had the opportunity to clarify open-market damage principles and to facilitate earlier dismissal of cases without compensable economic losses. Instead, in Dura Pharmaceuticals v. Broudo, it further confused the damage issue by (1) perpetuating the …
The Equivalence Approach To Securities Regulation, Tzung-Bor Wei
The Equivalence Approach To Securities Regulation, Tzung-Bor Wei
ExpressO
Abstract
In the past, academics and regulators debated two competing approaches to international securities regulation, namely “harmonization” and “regulatory competition.” More recently, a third approach to securities regulation has emerged – the “equivalence” approach. Under this model, a host country exempts foreign firms from certain host country rules when the firms’ home country rules are sufficiently similar, or “equivalent.” Many regulators have come to embrace equivalence, which is rapidly becoming a key principle in international finance.
This paper studies the concept of equivalence. It begins by defining “equivalence,” highlighting that different regulators manipulate the term to give it contrasting meanings. …
The Case Against Mandatory Annual Director Elections And Shareholders' Meetings, William K. Sjostrom
The Case Against Mandatory Annual Director Elections And Shareholders' Meetings, William K. Sjostrom
ExpressO
The article examines the mandatory requirement under state corporate law and stock exchange listing standards that public corporations hold annual shareholders’ meetings for the election of directors. Specifically, I question the value of requiring corporations to (1) elect directors annually, and (2) hold shareholders’ meetings annually. I critique the various justifications for these requirements and find none of them persuasive. I then explore a different approach taken by Minnesota with respect to the frequency of director elections and shareholders’ meetings and conclude that the approach is superior to the current scheme. Recognizing, however, that any less strict state approach is …
Ringing The Bell On The Nyse: Might A Nonprofit Stock Exchange Have Been Efficient?, Stephen F. Diamond
Ringing The Bell On The Nyse: Might A Nonprofit Stock Exchange Have Been Efficient?, Stephen F. Diamond
ExpressO
Abstract
This spring the New York Stock Exchange, Inc. (Exchange or NYSE) completed an historic restructuring. On March 7, 2006, the NYSE completed its merger with Archipelago Holdings Inc. (Archipelago), a publicly traded electronic trading platform. As a result, the old NYSE itself became the New York Stock Exchange LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of NYSE Group, Inc. (NYSE Group). The former members, or seat holders, of the NYSE received one of three forms of consideration: all cash, all stock in NYSE Group, or a package of cash and stock. The NYSE Group then allowed those former members to offer …
Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp
Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp
ExpressO
This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.
Mutal Funds And Other Collective Investment Mediums —A Comparative Analysis Of Their Regulation And Governance, Jerry W. Markham
Mutal Funds And Other Collective Investment Mediums —A Comparative Analysis Of Their Regulation And Governance, Jerry W. Markham
ExpressO
The mutual fund market timing and late trading scandals initiated by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in 2003 received widespread and sensational publicity in the financial press and led to settlements totaling over $3.5 billion. However, those actions were controversial and undercut the role of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), which had been given pervasive regulatory authority over mutual funds by the Investment Company Act of 1940. In order to regain its role as prime regulator of those entities, the SEC adopted more regulations, including a requirement that mutual funds increase the number of outside directors on their …
The Chameleon Effect: Beyond The Bonding Hypothesis For Cross-Listed Securities, Cally Jordan
The Chameleon Effect: Beyond The Bonding Hypothesis For Cross-Listed Securities, Cally Jordan
ExpressO
This paper is based on a presentation made at the New York Stock Exchange Conference on the Future of Global Equity Trading, March 12, 2004, Sarasota, FL.
Looking back, was it a momentary enthusiasm? The dramatic increase in cross-listed securities, particularly in the United States, was one of the remarkable phenomena of the 1990s capital markets. The bonding, or corporate governance, hypothesis was one of the more intriguing theories to surface to explain the phenomenon. Cross-listing, the hypothesis suggested, might be a bonding mechanism by which firms, incorporated in a jurisdiction with “weak protection” of minority shareholder rights or poor …
Darn Your Sox: Exploring Retroactive Application Of Extended Statutes Of Limitation And Repose In Securities Fraud Litigation, Sarah J. Greenberg
Darn Your Sox: Exploring Retroactive Application Of Extended Statutes Of Limitation And Repose In Securities Fraud Litigation, Sarah J. Greenberg
ExpressO
Unintended and unanticipated consequences of the 2002 enactment of Sarbanes Oxley are only recently making themselves known. One of these consequences includes differing interpretations of the section of Act which extends the statute of limitations for Sec. 10(b) securities fraud actions. The remedial nature and plain language of the Act call for retroactive application of the extended limitations period to revive previously time barred claims. The SEC has argued vigorously for such an interpretation, but, unfortunately, the majority of circuit courts analyzing the matter oppose this interpretation.
In my piece, Darn Your SOX: Exploring Retroactive Application of Extended Statutes of …
Managing Risk On A $25 Million Bet: Venture Capital, Agency Costs, And The False Dichotomy Of The Corporation, Robert P. Bartlett Iii
Managing Risk On A $25 Million Bet: Venture Capital, Agency Costs, And The False Dichotomy Of The Corporation, Robert P. Bartlett Iii
ExpressO
An implicit dichotomy of the corporation exists in legal scholarship. On one side of the dichotomy rests the publicly-held corporation suffering from a significant conflict of interest between its managers and dispersed shareholders; on the other side, the closely-held corporation plagued by inter-shareholder conflict.
This Article argues that understanding the agency problems that can exist within a firm demands a rejection of this traditional dichotomy and the theories of the firm built upon it. Using venture capital finance, this Article demonstrates for the first time how this dichotomy obscures how all firms - public and private - often face the …
Doing Deals In Japan: An Analysis Of Recent Trends & Developments For The U.S. Practitioner, Christopher T. Hines, Tatsuya Tanigawa, Andrew P. Hughes
Doing Deals In Japan: An Analysis Of Recent Trends & Developments For The U.S. Practitioner, Christopher T. Hines, Tatsuya Tanigawa, Andrew P. Hughes
ExpressO
This article examines the process which is currently being played out in Japan by: (i) analyzing the recent changes in Japanese law of relevance to M&A deals, (ii) discussing some recent contested deals in Japan that may shed some light on current market practices, and (iii) providing an overview of the key issues that a U.S. practitioner will likely face when working on a Japanese deal…A good starting point in better understanding the remarkable changes in the Japanese M&A markets is to review the recent amendments to Japanese law, certain policy initiatives by the functional regulators, and other guidelines issued …
How The Legal System Can Help Millions Retire: A Call For Improved Application Of The Suitability Standard, Ryan Z. Keller
How The Legal System Can Help Millions Retire: A Call For Improved Application Of The Suitability Standard, Ryan Z. Keller
ExpressO
An increased awareness in legal circles of the value of aggressive investments is necessary and the recommended solution should have two divergent effects on broker liability. On one hand, a broker who recommends growth investments should find his potential liability has decreased because the legal profession no longer solely focuses on financial loss. On the other hand, a broker who invests conservatively should discover his liability has potentially increased because his recommendations may not be in the client’s best interest. The value of both of these effects is that it causes brokers to have a substantially greater incentive to invest …
Voluntary Adoption Of Corporate Governance Mechanisms, Anita I. Anand, Frank Milne, Lynnette Purda
Voluntary Adoption Of Corporate Governance Mechanisms, Anita I. Anand, Frank Milne, Lynnette Purda
ExpressO
We examine the extent to which firms adopt recommended but not required corporate governance guidelines and establish that firms voluntarily implement suggested domestic best practices and the mandatory practices of neighboring countries as well. Drawing on the intuition of a principal-agent model in which the entrepreneur cannot fund all positive NPV projects, we hypothesize that access to capital is a primary determinant of the willingness of firms to voluntarily adopt corporate governance mechanisms. Our empirical results provide significant evidence that firms voluntarily adopt corporate governance guidelines. These results suggest that global competition for capital encourages firms to voluntarily adopt governance …
Sarbanes-Oxley: Section 404 And The Death Of The Small Public Company, M Gregory Cutler
Sarbanes-Oxley: Section 404 And The Death Of The Small Public Company, M Gregory Cutler
ExpressO
With the approaching implementation of § 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, there is widespread criticism of the enormous costs of complying with the section. Although § 404 arguably improves investor confidence by making the financial condition of a company more transparent, businesses argue that the costs are simply too high. The question remains as to whether high costs are a good enough reason to expose investors to the type of fraud Sarbanes-Oxley protects, or whether there are public policy reasons to ease the burdens.
This note examines the effects of § 404 on small businesses, and argues that public policy …
The Application Of Federal Common Law To Overcome Conflicting State Laws In The Supplemental Disgorgement Proceedings Of An Sec Appointed Receiver, Gauhar Naseem
ExpressO
In spite of the Erie doctrine, the application of federal common law has survived to overcome conflicting state laws in diversity actions where a federal law, interest or function is implicated. A federal court’s authority to substantively implement a federal common law rule over state law is clearest when the party to the action is a federal entity, namely an agency of the U.S. Government deriving its authority from the Constitution or some source of federal law. Analyzing such authority becomes more difficult in circumstances where parties to a diversity lawsuit are private citizens (not necessarily possessing any direct federal …
Manipulative Behavior In Auction Ipos, Mira Ganor
Manipulative Behavior In Auction Ipos, Mira Ganor
ExpressO
Book-building, the prevailing method for initial public offerings (IPOs), is widely considered flawed, because it results in stock under-pricing. Auction-IPO, on the other hand, is considered, by conventional wisdom, an alternative method that will eliminate the under-pricing. This paper shows how, contrary to customary belief, auction-IPOs may well result in under-pricing. In auction-IPOs, the under-pricing of the stock price is induced by undetected investors’ manipulative strategic behavior. I analyze the requirements for such strategic behavior in a linear model. To reduce investors’ incentive to manipulate their bid in the auction, this paper proposes to restrict auction participants from trading in …
The Substantive Limits Of Liability For Inaccurate Predictions, Hugh C. Beck
The Substantive Limits Of Liability For Inaccurate Predictions, Hugh C. Beck
ExpressO
In 1995, Congress enacted a statutory safe harbor to encourage companies to disclose more forward-looking information. Unfortunately, the case law interpreting the safe harbor has failed to yield intelligible standards for evaluating allegations of fraudulent forward-looking statements. As a result, companies have been reluctant to increase disclosures of forward-looking information and the legislation’s ultimate objective - to enhance allocative efficiency - has not been met. The article argues that two characteristics of the pre-1995 development of regulatory and judicial approaches to forward-looking information are primarily responsible for the continuing confusion in this area of the law. The first is a …
Enron And The Special Purpose Entity. Use Or Abuse? The Real Problem - The Real Focus, Neal F. Newman
Enron And The Special Purpose Entity. Use Or Abuse? The Real Problem - The Real Focus, Neal F. Newman
ExpressO
In December of 2001, Enron Corporation filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code; one of the largest corporate bankruptcy filings at that time. When the investigations commenced and the tangled Enron web was unraveled, it was discovered that Enron had perpetrated a very sophisticated form of accounting fraud through its repeated use of what are referred to as Special Purpose Entities (“SPEs”). In their most basic forms, SPEs are business entities formed for the purpose of conducting a well specified activity such as construction of a gas pipeline, or collection of a specific group of accounts …
The Dutch Auction Myth, Peter B. Oh
The Dutch Auction Myth, Peter B. Oh
ExpressO
The initial public offering process is under assault. Critics of this process have woven a complex set of interconnected objections to the orthodox method for conducting IPOs, pricing of shares, and allocating them to preferred investors. These critics instead point to online auctions as an alternative IPO method that can provide more equitable access, efficient prices, and egalitarian allocations. These claims rest on Google’s recent IPO and W.R. Hambrecht + Co.’s OpenIPO mechanism, conventionally regarded as impure variants of what is known as a descending-bid or Dutch auction (Dutch IPO).
This article assesses the empirical and theoretical case for Dutch …
Sarbanes-Oxley Act Of 2002: Are Multi-National Corporations Unduly Burdened?, William Alan Nelson
Sarbanes-Oxley Act Of 2002: Are Multi-National Corporations Unduly Burdened?, William Alan Nelson
ExpressO
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was enacted by Congress in response to the frauds perpetrated by several large U.S. companies; Enron and WorldCom were the main catalysts for the swift regulatory response. Though the primary impetus of Sarbanes-Oxley was to deter corruption domestically, its impact has had multinational reach. Problems arise when foreign corporations domiciled outside the United States are subject to both U.S. securities law and the laws of their home country, particularly when the laws are in conflict. This five part comment examines the effect that the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 has had on multinational corporations. The comment begins by …