Law Commons^™

Business Litigation And Cyberspace: Will Cyber Courts Prove An Effective Tool For Luring High-Tech Business Into Forum States?, Jacob A. Sommer

Vanderbilt Law Review

From beginning to end businesses are wed to the law. The life of a corporation typically begins with the filing of articles of incorporation with the secretary of state' and ends with either a merger into another corporation or dissolution. At every point in a corporation's life cycle, the American legal system places its imprimatur on the corporation's activities and governance. Inevitably, because of the sophisticated nature of business and frequent encounters with the law, businesses become engaged in their fair share of litigation and must resort to the judicial system for resolution.

Business, especially high-tech business, moves very quickly, …

On Virtue And Peace: Creating A Workplace Where People Can Flourish, Caryn L. Beck-Dudley, Steven H. Hanks

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In this Article, Professors Beck-Dudley and Hanks explore the virtues necessary for individuals to flourish within a business organization. Through this exploration, they conclude that modern discussions of business ethics fail to account for the value and virtue of peaceableness. Then, focusing on the freedom from conflict aspect of peaceableness, they use Champion Paper Products, Sartell Minnesota Paper Mill, as a case study in the significant improvements in human flourishing and organizational performance that can occur when management and labor choose peaceable solutions to labor conflicts.

Healthy Organizations And The Link To Peaceful Societies: Strategies For Implementing Organizational Change, Jeannette Jackson, Maria Coolican

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article focuses on the impact that the organizational structure of a corporation can have on fostering a peaceful outside world. In this Article, the Authors argue that if an organization is structured to meet the needs of its employees and also cares about its employees and their needs, then the employees will behave civilly and respectfully. Furthermore, the Authors argue that the organization structured in such fashion will then be conducive for healthy organizational growth and positive conflict resolution. The Article posits that families, schools, religious organizations, social groups, and business organizations all have the potential of contributing to …

Should Directors Reduce Executive Pay?, Randall Thomas

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This paper examines internal pay disparities in American public corporations and argues that wide gaps between the top and bottom of the pay scale can, in certain circumstances, directly and adversely affect firm value, that corporate boards should be informed about these effects, and that they should, in some cases, reduce internal pay differentials to address them. In support of this thesis, it analyzes numerous empirical studies that have shown that wide disparities in corporate pay scales can adversely affect firm value. These studies demonstrate that, at many types of organizations, as internal pay differentials grow, employees and lower level …

Locking In Capital: What Corporate Law Achieved For Business Organizers In The Nineteenth Century, Margaret M. Blair

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article argues that corporate status became popular in the nineteenth century as a way to organize production because of the unique manner in which incorporation permitted organizers to lock in financial capital. Unlike participants in a partnership, shareholders in an incorporated enterprise could not extract capital from the firm without explicit approval of a board of directors charged with representing the interests of the incorporated entity, even when that interest might sometimes conflict with the interests of individual shareholders. While this ability to lock in capital has occasionally led to abuses, the ability to commit capital generally helped promote …