Law Commons^™

Public Health And Racial Inequality: Why The Opportunity Zone Program Fails Low-Income Communities And Costs Lives, Katie Raitz

UC Irvine Law Review

“The rich man’s dog gets more in the way of vaccination, medicine and medical care than do the workers upon whom the rich man’s wealth is built."

Poor health outcomes are linked to long-standing wealth disparities for people of color in the United States. Wealth inequality has gotten worse over the past decades, despite attempts to improve it. The 2017 Opportunity Zone (OZ) tax program is the federal government’s most recent economic-development intervention. The OZ program provides for low-income census tracts in each state to be designated as “Opportunity Zones” and offers tax benefits for people who make investments in …

Optimizing The World’S Leading Corporate Law: A 20-Year Retrospective And Look Ahead, Lawrence Hamermesh, Jack B. Jacobs, Leo E. Strine Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

In a 2001 article (Function Over Form: A Reassessment of Standards of Review in Delaware Corporation Law) two of us, with important input from the other, argued that in addressing issues like hostile takeovers, assertive institutional investors, leveraged buyouts, and contested ballot questions, the Delaware courts had done exemplary work but on occasion crafted standards of review that unduly encouraged litigation and did not appropriately credit intra-corporate procedures designed to ensure fairness. Function Over Form suggested ways to make those standards more predictable, encourage procedures that better protected stockholders, and discourage meritless litigation, by restoring business judgment rule …

Shareholder Wealth Maximization: A Schelling Point, Martin Edwards

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Imagine a reality television game show where two contestants begin the game in two different places in New York City. The object of the game is for the two contestants to find each other, but they do not know anything about each other and they have no way of communicating. If they succeed, both contestants win a prize. If they fail, they get nothing. With no ability to explicitly bargain over the meeting, the parties have to make an educated guess about what the other person is most likely to do. Most people, confronted with this sort of tacit …

Trust Planning And The Washington State Capital Gains Tax, Jadrian M. Coppieters

Seattle University Law Review SUpra

On April 25, 2021, the Washington state legislature enacted a new state capital gains tax. Prior to the enactment of the new state capital gains tax, Washington had been one of the few states that did not impose a tax on either income or capital gains. The limitations imposed by the Washington state constitution have forced the legislature to characterize the tax as an excise tax, rather than treat it as an income tax as would the federal government and every other state. Based on the statute’s structure and its presentation as an excise tax, whether intentionally or unintentionally, the …

The New International Tax Regime, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Law & Economics Working Papers

On October 8, 2021, over 130 countries committed themselves to the most far-reaching changes in the international tax regime since its inception in 1923. Slated to begin on the anniversary year of 2023, this new regime (ITR 2.0) adopts significant changes from the old one (ITR 1.0). Specifically, ITR 2.0 eliminates the physical presence requirement and the arm’s length standard for a significant portion of the profits of large multinationals that have been essential elements of ITR 1.0 since the 1930s, in a way that is more consistent with ITR 1.0’s Benefits Principle (BP). ITR 2.0 also explicitly implements the …

Mutual Fund Stewardship And The Empty Voting Problem, Jill E. Fisch

All Faculty Scholarship

When Roberta Karmel wrote the articles that are the subject of this symposium, she was skeptical of both the potential value of shareholder voting and the emerging involvement of institutional investors in corporate governance. In the ensuing years, both the increased role and engagement of institutional investors and the heightened importance of shareholder voting offer new reasons to take Professor Karmel’s concerns seriously. Institutional investors have taken on a broader range of issues ranging from diversity and political spending to climate change and human capital management, and their ability to influence corporate policy on these issues has become more significant. …

Corruption And Its Manifestations In The Field Of Public Education At The Present Stage Of Development Of The Republic Of Uzbekistan, Abdullayeva Malikabonu Erkin Qizi

ProAcademy

The article deals with the concept and signs of corruption in national and international legislation. Based on the analysis of legal definitions of the concept of corruption, lists of acts of corruption in conjunction with the provisions of the most significant international legal acts that laid the foundations for understanding corruption, an attempt is made to determine the list and content of essential features of this social and legal phenomenon. As significant signs of corruption, the author singled out: social harm (danger), sphere of existence, subject of corruption, subjects, use by the subject of corruption of official (official) powers or …

Funding Global Governance, Kristina B. Daugirdas

Law & Economics Working Papers

Funding is an oft-overlooked but critically important determinant of what public institutions are able to accomplish. This article focuses on the growing role of earmarked voluntary contributions from member states in funding formal international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization. Heavy reliance on such funds can erode the multilateral governance of international organizations and poses particular risks for two kinds of undertakings: normative work, such as setting standards and identifying best practices; and evaluating the conduct of member states and holding those states accountable, including through public criticism, when they fall short. International organizations have …

The Federal Option: Delaware As A De Facto Agency, Omari Scott Simmons

Washington Law Review

Despite over 200 years of deliberation and debate, the United States has not adopted a federal corporate chartering law. Instead, Delaware is the “Federal Option” for corporate law and adjudication. The contemporary federal corporate chartering debate is, in part, a referendum on its role. Although the federal government has regulated other aspects of interstate commerce and has the power to charter corporations and preempt Delaware pursuant to its Commerce Clause power, it has not done so. Despite the rich and robust scholarly discussion of Delaware’s jurisdictional dominance, its role as a de facto national regulator remains underdeveloped. This Article addresses …

Fiscal Decolonization-Indigenous Fiscal Autonomy And Tax Jurisdiction, Riad Kherallah

LLM Theses

This thesis focuses on the relationship between Indigenous fiscal autonomy and self-determination. Indigenous nations’ ability to achieve self-determination is dependent upon their ability to autonomously finance self-government. Unfortunately, Canada’s colonial policies have weakened Indigenous economies and rendered them dependent upon the Crown. Due to Indigenous nations’ lack of fiscal autonomy, Crown policies designed to promote Indigenous self-government have proven inadequate. This thesis argues for using the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a blueprint for developing more equitable economic relations. While there are various elements to Crown-Indigenous economic relations, this thesis focuses on the distribution of …

Inflation In The 21st Century: Taking Down The Inflationary Straw Man Of The 1970s, Daniel Alpert, Cornell Research Academy Of Development, Law, And Economics, Mario Einaudi Center For International Studies

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This overview of the history of, and future prospects for, undesirable levels of price inflation in the U.S. economy concludes that concerns raised in 2021 by several well-known economists and analysts – regarding the prospects for accelerating levels of inflation as a result of pandemic-era and post-pandemic fiscal and monetary policy (enacted and proposed) – is misplaced. The wisdom of continuing expanded fiscal policy from late 2021 onwards is supported by an analysis of the prospects for future inflation in terms of both (i) the shortfall in aggregate domestic demand relative to existing endogenous and exogenous supply; and (ii) the …

The Euclid Proviso, Ezra Rosser

Washington Law Review

This Article argues that the Euclid Proviso, which allows regional concerns to trump local zoning when required by the general welfare, should play a larger role in zoning’s second century. Traditional zoning operates to severely limit the construction of additional housing. This locks in the advantages of homeowners but at tremendous cost, primarily in the form of unaffordable housing, to those who would like to join the community. State preemption of local zoning defies traditional categorization; it is at once both radically destabilizing and market responsive. But, given the ways in which zoning is a foundational part of the racial …

Copyrighting Tiktok Dances: Choreography In The Internet Age, Ali Johnson

Washington Law Review

TikTok is a video-sharing social media application that launched in 2018 and has grown wildly since its inception. Many users are drawn to the platform by “dance challenges”—short dance routines of varying complexity set to popular songs that are recreated by other users, eventually going “viral” (i.e., recreated on a massive scale by other users) on the app. Going viral can provide young dancers and choreographers an opportunity to break into the highly competitive entertainment industry. However, there is a problem: due to TikTok’s interface and community practices, the original creators of a dance (who, significantly, are often young women …

Marginal Benefits Of The Core Securities Laws, Kevin S. Haeberle

Faculty Publications

To every thing there is a season. In the area of securities regulation in the United States, it is the season for expansion. This article shows why such expansion should not involve use of the core issuer disclosure, fraud, and insider trading laws to reduce information asymmetry in the stock market in the name of investor protection. I argue that any expansion of these laws focused on this secondary market should therefore be justified by distinct concerns (namely, efficiency ones). Moreover, any push to better serve and protect investors should be focused on other areas of securities law (such as …

Replicability In Empirical Legal Research, Jason Chin, Kathryn Zeiler

Faculty Scholarship

As part of a broader methodological reform movement, scientists are increasingly interested in improving the replicability of their research. Replicability allows others to perform replications to explore potential errors and statistical issues that might call the original results into question. Little attention, however, has been paid to the state of replicability in the field of empirical legal research (ELR). Quality is especially important in this field because empirical legal researchers produce work that is regularly relied upon by courts and other legal bodies. In this review article, we summarize the current state of ELR relative to the broader movement towards …

Copyright Through The Prism Of The Law And Economics Movement: A Scientific Approach, Nikos Koutras, Marinos Papadopoulos

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper discusses aspects of economic analysis of law developed because of the status quo existing on the Internet and of the evolution of legal theory on copyright. It also explores the massive increase of interest in the law and economics of intellectual property during the first decade of twenty-first century. The paper argues that law and economics discourse on copyright foregrounds policymaking with a focus on copyright’s economic ramifications. This paper also examines Coase’s theorem and its influence on considerations about copyright regulatory frameworks and potential reform to keep abreast of ongoing technological advancements and their impact on copyright …

Iowa Land And Landowners: Fear Or Opportunity, Neil D. Hamilton

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Our relation to the land changed as modern agriculture changed. Today many issues involving the land seem to focus on fear and conflict, revealing a fragility of agriculture surprising for how it confounds the expected image of strength and stability. In many ways, our fragile relation to the land contrasts to the optimism of the relation in the past, in the years of settlement and expansion. Part of the change reflects the adverse impacts of modern agriculture catching up with us, and part stems from a society more willing to focus on issues of equity, inclusion, and inequality. The good …

The Pandemic, Climate Change And Farm Subsidies, Allen H. Olson, Edward J. Peterson

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Many people believe that once the COVID-19 pandemic has passed, life will return to the way it was. This belief is both unrealistic and dangerous. It is unrealistic because the virus will be around for years if not indefinitely. The timeframe for the worst of the pandemic will depend on our ability to administer effective vaccines worldwide and the public’s willingness to accept continued social distancing in the meantime. The damage done to public health, the economy and individuals is already substantial and will get worse. Recovery will be slow and incomplete. The belief that life will return to the …

Legal Economics And The Canadian Accredited Investor Standard: Efficiency As A Proxy For Change, Jeremy White

Master of Laws Research Papers Repository

This paper takes a legal-economic approach in assessing the current accredited investor standard that exists as part of Canada’s securities laws. An accredited investor is often characterized as an individual that, due to his or her wealth, may participate in certain investment opportunities that would otherwise not be available. Canada’s National Instrument 45-106 views accredited investors as those with a unique ability to understand financial markets, and due to this level of understanding, the typical disclosure protections afforded to the public—mainly, the prospectus—are not necessary to these individuals.

A legal-economic approach to the accredited investor standard looks at the system …

The Last Call For Civil Rights: Toward Economic Equality, Steve Lee

Georgia State University Law Review

Over six decades have passed since the civil rights movement began in the mid-1950s, but American society has not yet fully realized the promise of the civil rights movement, which at its core embodies the protection and promotion of equity and dignity of all people. Despite the historic improvements that accord the legal protection of equal rights among different races, genders, and ethnic groups, significant economic disparity among racial and regional lines persists. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. declared, “Now our struggle is for genuine equality, which means economic equality.” However, the pursuit of economic equality has not been …

Forms Of International Legal And Organizational Interaction In The Field Of Counteraction Illicit Drug Trafficking, Psychotropic Substances And Precursors, Musaev Djamaliddin Kamalovich

ProAcademy

The author raises the problem of international cooperation of states in the field of illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. References are given to the main conventions related to this problem, signed in different years. The mechanisms of adoption and the form of practical application of these conventions are disclosed, as well as an analysis of the situation in the world in relation to drug trafficking is given, options for resolving the problem by strengthening the international system for controlling drug trafficking are proposed. A comprehensive analysis of international cooperation on legal and organizational approaches to combating the …

Freedom Without Opportunity: Using Medicare Policy And Cms Mechanisms To Anticipate The Platform Economy’S Pitfalls And Ensure Healthcare Platform Workers Are Fairly Paid, Kim A. Aquino

Brooklyn Law Review

The rapidly aging population, along with the demand for innovative Medicare delivery models such as bundled payment programs have incentivized the use of technology in healthcare because of its potential to cut costs and improve quality of care. Like many industries embracing technological strides to automate and digitize services, the healthcare industry has welcomed new labor markets like the platform economy to facilitate connections between patients and workers with ease. Along with streamlining connections, the platform economy also promises workers flexibility and autonomy over their own schedule. The platform economy’s promise of freedom, however, is not enough to prevent the …

The Debate Over Disclosure In Third-Party Litigation Finance: Balancing The Need For Transparency With Efficiency, Alec J. Manfre

Brooklyn Law Review

The market for third-party litigation financing (TPLF) in the United States is facing unprecedented growth and popularity. The ever-increasing complexity and cost of legal disputes, especially in the commercial context, has made third-party financing an invaluable resource for both litigants in need of capital and investors seeking to diversify their portfolios with nontraditional assets. However, as the market continues to boom, so does the risk that TPLF will be used unethically. Critics of the industry are calling on regulators at both the state and federal levels to implement comprehensive disclosure requirements for TPLF at the outset of all civil litigation …

Vertical Control, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

Antitrust litigation often requires courts to consider challenges to vertical “control.” How does a firm injure competition by limiting the behavior of vertically related firms? Competitive injury includes harm to consumers, labor, or other suppliers from reduced output and higher margins.

Historically antitrust considers this issue by attempting to identify a market that is vertically related to the defendant, and then consider what portion of it is “foreclosed” by the vertical practice. There are better mechanisms for identifying competitive harm, including a more individualized look at how the practice injures the best placed firms or bears directly on a firm’s …

Federal-State Partnership: How The Federal Government Should Better Support Its State Unemployment Insurance Offices In Times Of Crisis, Maddie Mcfee

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused millions of people to lose their jobs and become dependent on unemployment benefits. State unemployment offices were not prepared for this sudden onslaught of claims. Offices could not increase staffing levels because they were not given money by the federal government to do so. As offices were overwhelmed, a scammer group named Scattered Canary took this opportunity to fraudulently claim millions of dollars from several states. Because the federal government supplies administrative funds to states based on average previous need, the system is not designed to support states’ increased needs during sudden economic …

Emergency Money: Lessons From The Paycheck Protection Program, Susan C. Morse

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, was huge. Between April 2020 and May 2021, it provided almost $800 billion to more than 11 million businesses—about a third of all U.S. businesses with 500 employees or fewer. The PPP was also flawed. Treasury and the Small Business Administration faced incomplete statutory instructions and a challenging tradeoff between speed and accuracy in distributing PPP funds.

These flaws make the PPP a realistic and valuable case study; the PPP reveals tools that can be applied to similar distributions of emergency funds. One tool is back-end adjustments, meaning that funds are first distributed and …

Finding A Rule-Based Solution To The Appellate Body Crisis: Looking Beyond The Multiparty Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The WTO dispute settlement system is in crisis due to the persistent blockage of the appointment of Appellate Body members by the United States. This paper reviews the US criticisms against the Appellate Body and argues that its allegations are unfounded and its approach is wrong. To deal with the US blockage, various proposals have been made, with the most popular being the Multiparty Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA) set up by several key Members including the European Union and China. After a thorough analysis of the key features of the MPIA from both theoretical and practical perspectives, this paper …

Securing Secrets: The Need For A Treaty Addressing State-Sponsored Economic Espionage, Jaylin Johnson

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Tax Law- Status Quo, Trends And Perspectives, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Law & Economics Working Papers

This chapter will argue that developments in the past decade have significantly bolstered the International Tax Regime, so that it does a much better job in protecting PIT and CIT from erosion due to cross-border tax evasion and avoidance than it did before 2010. Specifically, the adoption of FATCA and the consequent development of Automatic Exchange of Information (AEI) and the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) have significantly protected PIT, while the OECD BEPS project has significantly improved CIT, especially if the current BEPS 2.0 effort is successfully concluded.

The International Tax Regime At 100: Reflections On The Oecd's Beps Project, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Law & Economics Working Papers

This essay will consider the outcome of Pillars One and Two in light of the history of international taxation since the foundation of the international tax regime in 1923. Specifically, it will consider how Pillar One fits with efforts to redefine the source of active income in light of the digital revolution, and the ways in which Pillar Two implements the single tax principle, which can be traced back to the first model treaty from 1927. Both of those ideas were already articulated and developed in my own early writing on international taxation from the 1990s, when the Internet was …