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Full-Text Articles in Law
Legal Capital And The Model Business Corporation Act: An Essay For Bayless Manning, James J. Hanks Jr.
Legal Capital And The Model Business Corporation Act: An Essay For Bayless Manning, James J. Hanks Jr.
Law and Contemporary Problems
Hanks discusses the distribution provisions of the Model Business Corporation Act. The relatively smooth operation and interpretation of the MBCA's distribution provisions is an excellent example of the reflection, sophistication, care, and skill of the Committee on Corporate Laws in considering, drafting, revising, and updating the Model Business Corporation Act over the past sixty years. The overall success of the distribution provisions is a tribute to the many lawyers, judges, and law professors who have participated in the Committee's very successful efforts to advance the law of corporations in this country and elsewhere.
Indemnification And Advancement Through An Agency Lens, Deborah A. Demott
Indemnification And Advancement Through An Agency Lens, Deborah A. Demott
Law and Contemporary Problems
DeMott discusses the doctrines that define entitlements to indemnification. In the corporate context, indemnification is better grounded, as in the Model Business Corporation Act (MBCA), in the necessity of furnishing corporate directors with appropriate protection against personal risk. To be sure, as the MBCA's official comments implicitly acknowledge, the position of officers, especially senior executive officers, does not fit neatly and exclusively into either an "agent" or a "non-agent" category for indemnification purposes.
Delaware Corporate Law And The Model Business Corporation Act: A Study In Symbiosis , Jeffrey M. Gorris, Lawrence A. Hamermesh, Leo E. Strine Jr.
Delaware Corporate Law And The Model Business Corporation Act: A Study In Symbiosis , Jeffrey M. Gorris, Lawrence A. Hamermesh, Leo E. Strine Jr.
Law and Contemporary Problems
No abstract provided.
The Intersection Of Race And Class In U.S. Immigration Law And Enforcement, Kevin R. Johnson
The Intersection Of Race And Class In U.S. Immigration Law And Enforcement, Kevin R. Johnson
Law and Contemporary Problems
No abstract provided.
Excluding Unfit Workers: Social Control Versus Social Justice In The Age Of Economic Reform, David E. Bernstein, Thomas C. Leonard
Excluding Unfit Workers: Social Control Versus Social Justice In The Age Of Economic Reform, David E. Bernstein, Thomas C. Leonard
Law and Contemporary Problems
No abstract provided.
Institutions From Above And Voices From Below: A Comment On Challenges To Group-Conflict Resolution And Reconciliation, Laurel E. Fletcher
Institutions From Above And Voices From Below: A Comment On Challenges To Group-Conflict Resolution And Reconciliation, Laurel E. Fletcher
Law and Contemporary Problems
Fletcher explores how assumptions about justice have succeeded in establishing a new international consensus on necessary processes of rebuilding societies, some pitfalls of this approach, and recommendations for new directions for the field of transitional justice. A central assumption animating the moral, political, and legal cases for transitional justice is that those responsible for unleashing and conducting mass violence that devastates countries and the lives of civilian residents should not get away with their criminal acts. And further, supporters of justice assume that a legal response is necessary in order to promote reconciliation. He thinks that the appropriate role of …
Persistent Nonviolent Conflict With No Reconciliation: The Flemish And Walloons In Belgium, Robert Mnookin, Alain Verbeke
Persistent Nonviolent Conflict With No Reconciliation: The Flemish And Walloons In Belgium, Robert Mnookin, Alain Verbeke
Law and Contemporary Problems
Mnookin and Verbeke describe the nonviolent but very serious conflict in Belgium between the Flemish (Dutch) of the North and the Walloons (French) of the South. The Flemish economy is more prosperous than the Walloon economy, and the Flemish constitute a majority of the Belgian population. Nevertheless, the Walloons enjoy a financial subsidy from the Flemish and share equally in the political power of the nation due to antimajoritarian restrictions built into the government structure. Even though significant and persistent, this conflict remains nonviolent due to several factors, including largely separate geography, language and social structure; a low-stakes conflict; relatively …
Comment On Meir Dan-Cohen, Skirmishes On The Temporal Boundaries Of States, John C. P. Goldberg
Comment On Meir Dan-Cohen, Skirmishes On The Temporal Boundaries Of States, John C. P. Goldberg
Law and Contemporary Problems
Goldberg praises Meir Dan-Cohen's creative thinking about state wrongdoing but argues that it is ultimately unclear how a nation gets relieved of responsibility for its past harms. Equally unclear is why as a normative matter nations should be permitted to obtain temporal shifts. Dyadic conflicts that redefine the wrongdoer might be easier to envision because the victim is empowered to redraw the boundary of the wrongdoer. When a nation commits wrong, the justification for redrawing its boundaries often must come from somewhere other than a single victim's forgiveness.
Legitimacy And Effectiveness Of A Grassroots Truth And Reconciliation Commission, Jill E. Williams
Legitimacy And Effectiveness Of A Grassroots Truth And Reconciliation Commission, Jill E. Williams
Law and Contemporary Problems
Williams describes the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) process that was put into place in Greensboro NC. That process was set up to address community hostilities that had been festering for more than twenty years, since the 1979 killings of black protesters by Ku Klux Klansmen and American Nazis. In that case a grassroots-initiated TRC was formed to address the community problems, but it was not backed by the local government and it lacked the ability to grant amnesty or to subpoena witnesses. Community members had very different views regarding the necessity and likely helpfulness of the TRC. She concludes …
The Unforgiving: Reflections On The Resistance To Forgiveness After Atrocity, Thomas Brudholm, Valérie Rosoux
The Unforgiving: Reflections On The Resistance To Forgiveness After Atrocity, Thomas Brudholm, Valérie Rosoux
Law and Contemporary Problems
Brudholm and Rosoux question the ethics of having religious and political leaders call on individual victims to forgive wrongdoing as an aid to group-conflict resolution. Even though a group might strongly desire political stability and peace, these goals should not be obtained at the expense of the needs of the victim. They argue that even when the group strongly desires reconciliation, reconciliation does not necessarily require forgiveness. They also consider several actual examples of resistance with particular concentration on the reflections of two genocide survivors, namely Jean Amery and Esther Mujawayo.
Polarization: The Role Of Emotions In Reconciliation Efforts, Meghan Clarke
Polarization: The Role Of Emotions In Reconciliation Efforts, Meghan Clarke
Law and Contemporary Problems
Clarke points out some strategies that have been used in the Collaborative Change Approach to group-conflict resolution that are designed to help depolarize the competing sides' stances toward one another. In order to try to break down the hostility between the groups, Clarke brings together each identity or stakeholder group in order to share with one another why each group cares passionately about the issue. Clarke provides the example of a groundfishery conflict that involved recreational fishermen, commercial fishermen, environmentalists, researchers, and government officials. The interests of each of these groups conflicted, but no group had morally problematic motivations or …
A Biological Approach To Understanding Resistance To Apology, Forgiveness, And Reconciliation In Group Conflict, Douglas H. Yarn, Gregory Todd Jones
A Biological Approach To Understanding Resistance To Apology, Forgiveness, And Reconciliation In Group Conflict, Douglas H. Yarn, Gregory Todd Jones
Law and Contemporary Problems
Yarn and Jones introduce a biological approach to understanding resistance to apology, forgiveness, and reconciliation in intergroup conflict. Using evolutionary biology and game theory, they illustrate how the strategic dynamics of dyadic interaction tend to favor these behaviors and derive a schema relevant a reconciliatory cycle. They then explore how the distinct context of intra- and intergroup conflict reinforces these behaviors. Finally, they identify those barriers to individual reconciliation that result from the strategic dynamics of social-group architectures, particularly those that differ from the ancestral social architecture within which individual behavior has evolved. They conclude with a brief application of …
Skirmishes On The Temporal Boundaries Of States, Meir Dan-Cohen
Skirmishes On The Temporal Boundaries Of States, Meir Dan-Cohen
Law and Contemporary Problems
Dan-Cohen shares his views on group conflicts and how wrongdoers--individuals and groups--get past their wrongdoing. He points out that on the individual level the wrongdoer uses apology and remorse to try to redefine herself as a person in such a way that others no longer continue to hold her responsible for her prior bad conduct. In the process of forgiveness, the wrongdoer's personal identity is redefined in such a way that the reactive attitudes of the victim terminate. He asserts that a similar redefinition occurs when the wrongdoing is committed by a nation. He describes this process as one in …
Governing Pluralistic Societies, Tom Tyler
Governing Pluralistic Societies, Tom Tyler
Law and Contemporary Problems
Societies can be held together in many ways. Historically, many groups were linked by a common history, common ethnicity, and common religious and social values. These societies shared a unified set of norms dictating right and wrong. Other groups have been held together by charismatic leaders who present a unifying vision, but modern pluralistic society, uniquely, accepts a diversity of views about what is appropriate and reasonable, which makes these forms of authority difficult to enact. The form of authority emerging in western democratic states has been, instead, authority based upon the processes of government: people recognize democratic procedures as …
Truth, Understanding, And Repair, E. Franklin Dukes
Truth, Understanding, And Repair, E. Franklin Dukes
Law and Contemporary Problems
Dukes argues that the quest for truth, understanding, and victim-defined repair present more appropriate vehicles for addressing certain cases of severe injustice than might a focus upon apology and forgiveness. In his work, he helps construct conversations among people who often have different and conflicting interests, such that they may gain knowledge--knowledge about one another, about their relationships, and about the issues at stake. He acknowledges that he does focus on helping to build resilient and sustainable communities, but he also insists that productive resolution of some problems can happen in spite of, even because of, the lack of full …
The Many Lives — And Faces — Of Lex Mercatoria: History As Genealogy In International Business Law, Nikitas E. Hatzimihail
The Many Lives — And Faces — Of Lex Mercatoria: History As Genealogy In International Business Law, Nikitas E. Hatzimihail
Law and Contemporary Problems
It has been claimed that cross-border business transactions are governed by a transnational body of norms specific to international trade, generally known as lex mercatoria, the law merchant. This legal phenomenon is in fact often described as the new lex mercatoria, as distinguished from the ancient law merchant, which purportedly flourished in medieval and early modern Europe. Here, Hatzimihail discusses about lex mercatoria, which has been variously described by its advocates as a set of general principles and customary rules spontaneously referred to or elaborated in the framework of international trade.
Cultural Conflicts, Annelise Riles
Cultural Conflicts, Annelise Riles
Law and Contemporary Problems
Riles show how contemporary anthropological insights into the character of cultural difference and cultural fragmentation can reframe conflict-of-laws analysis in productive ways. Taking up the example of the treatment of Native American sovereignty in US courts, she argues that a theory of conflict of laws as a discipline devoted to addressing the problem of cultural conflict is more doctrinally illuminating than the mainstream view of conflict of laws as political conflict. Riles suggests that the general dissatisfaction with conflicts as a field in the United States, and its failure to live up to tits larger promise, may stem in part …
The Interlegality Of Transnational Private Law, Robert Wai
The Interlegality Of Transnational Private Law, Robert Wai
Law and Contemporary Problems
No abstract provided.
Citizenship, Public And Private, Karen Knop
Citizenship, Public And Private, Karen Knop
Law and Contemporary Problems
Knop develops private international law as the private side of citizenship. She shows that although individuals think of citizenship as public, private international law covers some of the same ground. Private international law also harks back to a historical conception of the legal citizen as someone who could sue and be sued, and someone who belonged to a community of shared or common law that was not necessarily a territorial community. She demonstrates that Anglo-Canadian private international law has particular value as private citizenship in a post-9/11 world because its treatment of enemy aliens, illegal immigrants, and members of religious …
Insolvency Principles And The Odious Debt Doctrine: The Missing Link In The Debate, A. Mechele Dickerson
Insolvency Principles And The Odious Debt Doctrine: The Missing Link In The Debate, A. Mechele Dickerson
Law and Contemporary Problems
Politicians as well as many members of the international human-rights community, view the odious debt doctrine as fundamentally unfair that the Iraqi people may be saddled with the debts Saddam Hussein's brutal regime incurred. Furthermore, some in the human-rights community generally argue that rich (creditor) countries have a moral duty or obligation to protect citizens of poor (debtor) countries and that richer nations should forgive the debts of poorer nations to help reduce existing inequalities between developed and developing countries. Here, Dickerson evaluates the doctrine of odious debts using the insolvency framework found in the United States Bankruptcy Code.
A Critique Of The Odious Debt Doctrine, Albert H. Choi, Eric A. Posner
A Critique Of The Odious Debt Doctrine, Albert H. Choi, Eric A. Posner
Law and Contemporary Problems
Choi and Posner indicate that it is unclear whether the doctrine will improve the welfare of the population that might be subject to a dictatorship in terms of the odious debt doctrine. The traditional backward-looking defense of the odious debt doctrine, which suggests that the doctrine is costless because it releases a suffering population from an unjust debt, is seriously incomplete. Although in specific cases the benefits of loan sanctions may exceed the costs, the defenders of the doctrine have not made the empirical case that the net benefits are sufficiently high in the aggregate as to warrant routine application …
Medical Malpractice Overseas: The Legal Uncertainty Surrounding Medical Tourism, Philip Mirrer-Singer
Medical Malpractice Overseas: The Legal Uncertainty Surrounding Medical Tourism, Philip Mirrer-Singer
Law and Contemporary Problems
Mirrer-Singer explores some of the legal uncertainty surrounding medical tourism specifically in ways medical tourists can seek relief in US courts for malpractice committed abroad and explains why courts probably lack jurisdiction over foreign physicians who have allegedly committed malpractice. Among other things, he discusses theories under which US firms in the medical-tourism business could be held liable for the foreign provider's negligence.
Reflections On Animals, Property, And The Law And Rain Without Thunder, Gary L. Francione
Reflections On Animals, Property, And The Law And Rain Without Thunder, Gary L. Francione
Law and Contemporary Problems
Animal interests will almost always be regarded as less important than human interests, even when the human interest at stake is relatively trivial and the animal interest at stake is significant. The result of any supposed balancing of human and nonhuman interests required by animal-welfare laws is predetermined from the outset by the property status of the nonhuman as a "food animal," "experimental animal," "game animal," et cetera.
Measuring Distributive Injustice On A Different Scale, Tom Miller
Measuring Distributive Injustice On A Different Scale, Tom Miller
Law and Contemporary Problems
Miller highlights the importance of education as a powerful contributor to significant differences in health outcomes. Enhancing educational opportunities for lower-income Americans may help to ensure that only no child, but also no patient, is left behind.
A Commander’S Power, A Civilian’S Reason: Justice Jackson’S Korematsu Dissent, John Q. Barrett
A Commander’S Power, A Civilian’S Reason: Justice Jackson’S Korematsu Dissent, John Q. Barrett
Law and Contemporary Problems
Barrett examines the dissent opinion of Supreme Court Justice Robert Houghwout Jackson in Korematsu v. United States, which centered on the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. Although the dissent has been criticized as incoherent, it contains strong legal implications within its complexity.
The Constitution Glimpsed From Tule Lake, Patrick O. Gudridge
The Constitution Glimpsed From Tule Lake, Patrick O. Gudridge
Law and Contemporary Problems
Although Ex Parte Endo undid the wrongs that resulted from the US Supreme Court decision Korematsu v. United States, the Japanese Americans who faced internment during WWII cannot so easily put the past behind them. Gudridge examines the publication The Spoilage, which documents the political efforts of those inside the internment camp at Tule Lake, and relates them to Endo and Korematsu.
Using Arbitration To Eliminate Consumer Class Actions: Efficient Business Practice Or Unconscionable Abuse?, Jean R. Sternlight, Elizabeth J. Jensen
Using Arbitration To Eliminate Consumer Class Actions: Efficient Business Practice Or Unconscionable Abuse?, Jean R. Sternlight, Elizabeth J. Jensen
Law and Contemporary Problems
Companies are increasingly using arbitral class action prohibitions to insulate themselves from class action liability. These prohibitions are detrimental not only to potential class members but to the public at large in that they are preventing the law from being adequately enforced. In essence, by precluding class actions, companies are engaging in "do-it-yourself tort reform," freeing themselves from liability without having to convince legislatures to change the substantive law.
The Uncertain Future Of Mandatory Arbitration Of Statutory Claims In The Unionized Workplace, Erica F. Schohn
The Uncertain Future Of Mandatory Arbitration Of Statutory Claims In The Unionized Workplace, Erica F. Schohn
Law and Contemporary Problems
As arbitration processes have improved over the last ten years, the negative perception of mandatory arbitration provisions that apply to statutory claims has decreased. The case law reflects this change in perception, as courts how allow mandatory arbitration of statutory claims brought by nonunion employees. This article argues that the continued distinction between claims by union and nonunion employees lacks any meaningful justification--that is, that mandatory arbitration of statutory claims is as appropriate, if not more so, in the collective bargaining context as it is in the nonunionized workplace.
The High Cost Of Mandatory Consumer Arbitration, Mark E. Budnitz
The High Cost Of Mandatory Consumer Arbitration, Mark E. Budnitz
Law and Contemporary Problems
This article critically examines a sampling of arbitration agreements and the rules of the major arbitration service providers and concludes that the cost of arbitration is often prohibitively high, either because consumers simply cannot afford the fees attendant to filing and prosecuting a claim or because the costs of bringing a claim outweigh the benefits of any potential remedies.
“Volunteering” To Arbitrate Through Predispute Arbitration Clauses: The Average Consumer’S Experience, Linda J. Demaine, Deborah R. Hensler
“Volunteering” To Arbitrate Through Predispute Arbitration Clauses: The Average Consumer’S Experience, Linda J. Demaine, Deborah R. Hensler
Law and Contemporary Problems
This article helps build the empirical foundation necessary for an informed debate regarding arbitration clauses in consumer contracts by providing preliminary insight into how businesses' use of these clauses affects consumers' ability to pursue their legal rights. To this end, the article reports the results of a study investigating, in a wide variety of consumer purchases, the frequency with which the average consumer encounters arbitration clauses, the key provisions of these clauses, and the implications of these clauses for consumers who subsequently have disputes with businesses they patronize.