Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Institution
Articles 1 - 9 of 9
Full-Text Articles in Law
Managing Corporate Federalism: The Least-Bad Approach To The Shareholder Bylaw Debate, Christopher M. Bruner
Managing Corporate Federalism: The Least-Bad Approach To The Shareholder Bylaw Debate, Christopher M. Bruner
Scholarly Works
Over recent decades, shareholders in public corporations have increasingly sought to augment their own power - and, correlatively, to limit the power of boards - through creative use of corporate bylaws. The bylaws lend themselves to such efforts because enacting, amending, and repealing bylaws are essentially the only corporate governance actions that shareholders can undertake unilaterally. In this Article I examine thecontested nature of bylaws, the fundamental issues of corporate power and purpose that they implicate, and the differing ways in which state and federal lawmakers and regulators may impact the debate regarding thescope of the shareholders' bylaw authority.
The …
Introduction: The Sec At 75, Barbara Black
Introduction: The Sec At 75, Barbara Black
Faculty Articles and Other Publications
This Introduction begins with a brief look back at the creation of the SEC and then examines the present-day agency's expression of its mission. It next reviews the Blueprint's assessment of the agency and its proposal for reform and then turns to the Obama Administration's Financial Regulatory Reform and its proposals relating to the SEC. Finally, this Introduction describes five issues to which the panelists paid particular attention: the SEC's mission, competition among financial markets, the proposal to merge the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the role of financial market networks in systemic risk regulation, and the …
Breaking Bucks: Sec Regulation By Obfuscation, William A. Birdthistle
Breaking Bucks: Sec Regulation By Obfuscation, William A. Birdthistle
All Faculty Scholarship
This Article argues that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s first and most significant response to the economic crisis profoundly contradicts widely accepted theoretical and regulatory approaches to financial oversight. More alarmingly, the SEC’s newest rules increase rather than decrease the likelihood of future failures in money market funds and the broader capital markets.
Scholars – of both neoclassical and behavioral economic theory – have long insisted that transparency and disclosure play essential roles in ensuring efficient capital markets and sound financial regulation. Professors Gilson and Kraakman notably argued that the efficient capital market hypothesis, and its reliance on a market …
The Performance Disclosures Of Credit Rating Agencies: Are They Effective Reputational Sanctions?, Lin (Lynn) Bai
The Performance Disclosures Of Credit Rating Agencies: Are They Effective Reputational Sanctions?, Lin (Lynn) Bai
Faculty Articles and Other Publications
The SEC has recently added new provisions to the credit rating agency regulation. These provisions require credit rating agencies to disclose publicly their rating actions and performance measurements. The new requirements seek to achieve two goals: (1) deter conflicts of interest in the credit rating industry by invoking the reputational sanction power of performance statistics, and (2) help new entrants to the industry build a track record so they can compete with established agencies. This paper reveals empirical evidence that the current disclosure requirements cannot achieve these goals and makes recommendations on how the regulation should be improved in light …
On Regulating Conflicts Of Interest In The Credit Rating Industry, Lin (Lynn) Bai
On Regulating Conflicts Of Interest In The Credit Rating Industry, Lin (Lynn) Bai
Faculty Articles and Other Publications
This paper discusses issues giving rise to conflict of interest concerns in the credit rating industry and examines whether and how those issues are addressed in the current regulation that builds on the guidelines of the Credit Rating Agency Reform Act of 2006, the SEC rules that were initially adopted in 2007 and recently amended in 2009, and the internal code of conducts of rating agencies. The examination leads to a conclusion that conflict of interest at the individual rating analyst level and some concerns of conflict of interest at the agency level have been largely addressed in the current …
Fiduciary Duty - Now And In The Future, Christine Lazaro
Fiduciary Duty - Now And In The Future, Christine Lazaro
Faculty Publications
(Excerpt)
The celebrated jurist Benjamin Cardozo opined that the fiduciary duty is “the duty of finest loyalty”, and that a fiduciary “is held to something stricter than the morals of the market place. Not honesty alone, but the punctilio of an honor the most sensitive, is then the standard of behavior.” The question most customers have is whether their broker is subject to this duty of finest loyalty, or if they are bound merely by the morals of the marketplace. Currently this is a very difficult question to answer, and will depend on whether the customer is dealing with a …
The Multienforcer Approach To Securities Fraud Deterrence: A Critical Analysis, Amanda Rose
The Multienforcer Approach To Securities Fraud Deterrence: A Critical Analysis, Amanda Rose
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Participants in the U.S. capital markets can be sued for securities fraud by a mishmash of enforcers, including the SEC, class action plaintiffs, and state regulators. Does this multi-enforcer approach make sense from a deterrence perspective? This Article suggests that the answer is probably no. Although in theory there are conditions under which a multi-enforcer approach would promote optimal deterrence, it is unclear at best that those conditions exist in the United States. And further empirical research, while warranted, is unlikely to resolve the issue definitively. The status quo tends to persevere in the face of this sort of irreducible …
In Praise Of Process: Examining The Sec, Rule 14a-8(I)(8), And Afscme V. Aig, Jena Martin
In Praise Of Process: Examining The Sec, Rule 14a-8(I)(8), And Afscme V. Aig, Jena Martin
Faculty Articles
Part one of this essay will discuss the rule, including a brief analysis of proxy access generally and the "election exclusion" specifically. Part two will examine the AFSCME v. AIG case and the SEC's response thereto in more detail-discussing the arguments posited both for and against increased shareholder access, as well as the aftermath of the SEC's decision. Part three will analyze how the SEC's failure to change Rule 14a-8(i)(8) to allow greater shareholder access specifically caused one thread in the financial crisis-as a direct result of a loss of shareholder empowerment. Finally, part four offers an epilogue-a discussion of …
Introduction: Insider Trading (Oxford University Press 3d Ed.), William K.S. Wang, Marc I. Steinberg
Introduction: Insider Trading (Oxford University Press 3d Ed.), William K.S. Wang, Marc I. Steinberg
Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters
This paper is the introductory chapter to Insider Trading (Oxford University Press 3d ed. 2010). This treatise analyzes the application of various laws to stock market insider trading and tipping. Among the federal laws are Exchange Act section 10(b), SEC Rule 10b-5, mail/wire fraud, SEC Rule 14e-3, Exchange Act section 16, and Securities Act section 17(a). The state law discussed is both state common law and a state law claim by the issuer.
Another chapter addresses government enforcement of the insider trading/tipping prohibitions. A chapter on compliance programs deals with how firms can try to prevent illegal insider trading and …