Law Commons^™

Equitable Compensation And The Brickenden “Rule” After Winsta Holding Pte Ltd And Another V Sim Poh Ping And Others, Nicholas Liu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Brickenden rule, which was thought to provide an exception to the requirement of but-for causation of loss in equitable compensation for breach of fiduciary duty, has recently been rejected by the Singapore High Court in Winsta Holding Pte Ltd and another v Sim Poh Ping and others (Winsta Holding). This case comment suggests that although the substantive position arrived at in Winsta Holding is a sound one, it should not entail a rejection of the Brickenden rule. Properly understood, the Brickenden “rule” is consistent with the requirement that the principal prove but-for causation.

In Code(Rs) We Trust: Software Developers As Fiduciaries In Public Blockchains, Angela Walch

Faculty Articles

A decade into Bitcoin's existence, governance questions around it and other public blockchains abound. Do these 'decentralized' structures even have governance? If so, what does it look like? Who has power, and how is it channeled or constrained? Are power structures implicit or explicit? How can we improve upon the ad hoc governance structures of early blockchains? ls ‘on-chain governance,’ like that proposed by Tezos and others, the path forward?

In August 2016, in the aftermath of the DAO theft and resulting Ethereum hard fork, I argued in American Banker that the core developers and significant miners of public blockchains …

The Method In Fiduciary Law's Mixed Messages, Evan J. Criddle

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Liberty In Loyalty: A Republican Theory Of Fiduciary Law, Evan J. Criddle

Faculty Publications

Conventional wisdom holds that the fiduciary duty of loyalty is a prophylactic rule that serves to deter and redress harmful opportunism. This idea can be traced back to the dawn of modern fiduciary law in England and the United States, and it has inspired generations of legal scholars to attempt to explain and justify the duty of loyalty from an economic perspective. Nonetheless, this Article argues that the conventional account of fiduciary loyalty should be abandoned because it does not adequately explain or justify fiduciary law’s core features.

The normative foundations of fiduciary loyalty come into sharper focus when viewed …

Are Bank Fiduciaries Special?, Robert C. Hockett

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

A growing body of post-crisis legal and economic literature suggests that future financial crises might be averted by tinkering with the internal governance structures of banks and other financial institutions. In particular, contributors to this literature propose tightening the fiduciary duties under which officers and directors of the relevant financial institutions labor. I argue in this symposium article that such proposals are doomed to failure under all circumstances save one - namely, that under which the relevant financial institutions are in whole or in part treated as publicly owned.

The argument proceeds in two parts. I first show that the …

Digital Assets And Fiduciaries, Naomi R. Cahn, Christina Kunz, Suzanne Brown Walsh

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This chapter addresses the appropriate treatment of a person's digital life when the account holder can no longer manage it. As the Internet becomes an increasingly important presence in our daily lives, the law has a significant role to play in determining the management of digital assets upon the account holder's incapacity or death. In the past, people put hard copies of photos in albums, listened to record albums, and paid bills with a stamped envelope. Today, most people use the Internet to store photos, listen to music, and pay bills. Yet few people have considered how to dispose of …

Fiduciary-Isms: A Study Of Academic Influence On The Expansion Of The Law, Daniel B. Yeager

Faculty Scholarship

Fiduciary law aspires to nullify power imbalances by obligating strong parties to give themselves over to servient parties. For example, due to profound imbalances of legal know-how, lawyers must as fiduciaries pursue their clients’ interests, not their own, lest clients get lost in the competitive shuffle. As a peculiar hybrid of status and contract relations, politics and law, compassion and capitalism, fiduciary law is very much in vogue in academic circles. As vogue as it is, there remains room for my “Fiduciary-isms...”, a meditation on the expansion of fiduciary law from its origins in the law of trusts through partnerships, …

Is Federalization Of Charity Law All Bad? What States Can Learn From The Internal Revenue Code, Melanie B. Leslie

Articles

No abstract provided.

Putting Your Best Foot Forward, Heather Ridenour

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Privacy & The Personal Prospectus: Should We Introduce Privacy Agents Or Regulate Privacy Intermediaries, Scott R. Peppet

Publications

No abstract provided.

Avoiding Statutory Restrictions On Appointment Of Personal Representatives In Florida, Jani Maurer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Parents: Trusted But Not Trustees Or (Foster) Parents As Fiduciaries, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

Some fifteen years ago, Elizabeth and Robert Scott wrote an important article making the case that parents could be usefully described using a fiduciary model. This paper explains why their model fits foster parents better than biological or adoptive parents, at least in the sense that Tamar Frankel explains in her new book on fiduciary law.

Reforming Securities Class Actions From The Bench: Judging Fiduciaries And Fiduciary Judging, Lisa L. Casey

Journal Articles

The attorneys' fees awarded to plaintiffs’ counsel in securities fraud class actions have generated controversy for years. Critics have claimed that enormous fee awards come at the expense of defrauded investors and simply spur extortionate lawsuits against issuers and other potential deep pocket defendants. Commentators also have raised concerns that plaintiffs' class action lawyers manipulated class representatives, persons who had little incentive to monitor class counsel’s activities.

To address these concerns, Congress enacted the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act ("PSLRA"). Among other things, the statute sought to protect absent class members by giving control of the litigation to lead plaintiffs …

Fiduciary Duty: A New Ethical Paradigm For Lawyer/Fiduciaries, Paula A. Monopoli

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Of Punctilios And Paybacks: The Duty Of Loyalty Under The Uniform Trust Code, Karen E. Boxx

Articles

Loyalty has been cited as the most desired of traits from those who serve others. One reason that loyalty is so highly valued is that it is impossible to guarantee and impossible to buy. The trust law concept of the duty of loyalty acknowledges that human nature will cause any person to favor his or her personal interests over the interests of another, and it is this assumption of disloyalty that gives rise to the strict prohibitions of trustee conflicts of interest required under the label of "duty of loyalty."

The duty of loyalty has been called "the essence of …

The Durable Power Of Attorney's Place In The Family Of Fiduciary Relationships, Karen E. Boxx

Articles

The durable power of attorney is a deceptively simple document that allows one person to handle the affairs of an incapacitated person without court supervision. It is merely an agency relationship, established by a written document, that continues during the principal's incapacity. The durable power of attorney has been in widespread use only for about twenty-five years. It is very easy to draft, and its use escapes most court proceedings or even much need for legal assistance.

The durable power of attorney has therefore kept a low profile until now, and any attention it is now receiving focuses primarily on …

The Corporate Director's Duty Of Oversight, Mark J. Loewenstein

Publications

No abstract provided.

Fiduciary Duties As Default Rules, Tamar Frankel

Faculty Scholarship

This Article consists of four parts. Part I draws a profile of fiduciary relationships. It also explains the different responses of fiduciary and contract rules to the different problems that the relationships pose regarding: (1) the right of one party to rely on the other and the specific duties of loyalty and care, which mirror these rights; and (2) the events that trigger the application of fiduciary rules. Finally, it compares contract with fiduciary rules. The reasons for the existence of fiduciary rules suggest that, when in conflict, they trump the rules governing other parallel relationships, including contracts.

Part II …

The Sec And The Future Of Corporate Governance, Mark J. Loewenstein

Publications

No abstract provided.

Responsibility Of Investment Bankers To Shareholders, Ted J. Fiflis

Publications

No abstract provided.

Fiduciary Law, Tamar Frankel

Faculty Scholarship

In the business realm, the fiduciary duties of partners, corporate directors, and officers originated with the formation of partnerships and corporations, but majority shareholders were not subjected to fiduciary duties until this century. ... As in a status relation, one party to a fiduciary relation (the entrustor) is dependent on the other (the fiduciary). ... For example, a trust is defined as a fiduciary relation in which property is transferred to the trustee. ... A trustee is chosen by the trustor, and must be able to manage the trust assets independently of the beneficiary's control. ... It further shows that …

Fiduciary's Investment Duty - The Peril Of The Prudent Man Rule, J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is ( 1) to report on the recent decision in Hoffman v. First Virginia Bank, 1 (2) to identify the several problems this decision has created for the public and for the bar, (3) to propose a statutory solution to these problems, and (4) to suggest an interim approach to these problems that drafters of wills and trusts might take while awaiting the passage of an appropriate statute.