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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Unreasonableness Of Reasonable: Rethinking The Reasonable Investor Standard, Alexandra Li Apr 2023

The Unreasonableness Of Reasonable: Rethinking The Reasonable Investor Standard, Alexandra Li

Northwestern University Law Review

This Note explores the “reasonable investor” standard in light of recent developments in pandemic-era securities litigation. Scholars have long criticized the reasonable investor standard for determining materiality. Given the dramatic backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the limitations of the standard are becoming ever more evident. This Note provides a brief history of the development of the current standard and highlights some of its problems through two recent COVID-19 securities fraud cases. This Note argues that the reasonable investor standard is no longer sufficient to protect investors. Through examining tort law and First Amendment jurisprudence, this Note differentiates between the “reasonable” …


Friends Without Benefits: Criminal Insider Trading Liability And The "Personal Benefit" Test After Blaszczak, Curtis A. French Apr 2022

Friends Without Benefits: Criminal Insider Trading Liability And The "Personal Benefit" Test After Blaszczak, Curtis A. French

JCLC Online

The U.S. Supreme Court established the “personal benefit” test in Dirks v. SEC to determine whether a tippee assumed a fiduciary duty to not trade based on or disclose inside information when a tipper breached his or her fiduciary duty by improperly disclosing such information to the tippee. Under the personal benefit test, a tipper breaches his or her fiduciary duty if the tipper derives a personal benefit, either directly or indirectly, from disclosing the inside information to a tippee. The Supreme Court provided examples as to what constitutes a personal benefit, such as the tipper’s expectation of reputational benefits …


Regulating High-Frequency Trading: The Case For Individual Criminal Liability, Orlando Cosme Jr. Jan 2019

Regulating High-Frequency Trading: The Case For Individual Criminal Liability, Orlando Cosme Jr.

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

The popular imagination of securities trading is a chaotic, physical stock exchange—a busy floor with hurried traders yelling, “buy, buy, buy!” While this image is a Hollywood and media favorite, it is no longer accurate. In 2019, most securities trading is conducted electronically on digital markets. One type of trading strategy, high-frequency trading, utilizes algorithms, data centers, fiber optic cables, and supercomputers to obtain an edge in the market. High-frequency trading has leveraged advancements in technology to constitute over half of all trading volume in a given day. High-frequency trading, however, has come under scrutiny in recent years as it …


Jury Certification Of Federal Securities Fraud Class Actions, Thomas Kayes Jan 2015

Jury Certification Of Federal Securities Fraud Class Actions, Thomas Kayes

Northwestern University Law Review

The rough equivalence of certification and ultimate outcome is class action dogma. If certification is granted, then the plaintiff “wins” by settlement because the risk of incurring class-wide liability by going to trial is too great. If certification is denied, the defendant “wins” because the case may not be worth litigating without the possibility of a class-wide recovery. This Note is about where the dogma is wrong. There are now cases where a denial of certification, just like a grant, presents to the defendant the risk of incurring class-wide liability at trial. This is because those cases are capable of …


A Bright Idea: A Bright-Line Test For Extraterritoriality In F-Cubed Securities Fraud Private Causes Of Action, Jennifer Mitchell Coupland Jan 2012

A Bright Idea: A Bright-Line Test For Extraterritoriality In F-Cubed Securities Fraud Private Causes Of Action, Jennifer Mitchell Coupland

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Whether a foreign or American claimant has a private right of action in so-called ―Foreign-Cubed‖ or ―Foreign-Squared‖ claims under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 10b-5 has been the subject of much debate among U.S. courts, Congress, and the international community. Historically, these cases have been heard in the United States if the conduct had a substantial effect in the United States or on U.S. citizens (the effects test), or if the fraudulent or wrongful conduct occurred in the United States (the conduct test). However, in June 2010, …


Cleaning The Murky Safe Harbor For Forward-Looking Statements: An Inquiry Into Whether Actual Knowledge Of Falsity Precludes The Meaningful Cautionary Statement Defense, Allan Horwich Jan 2010

Cleaning The Murky Safe Harbor For Forward-Looking Statements: An Inquiry Into Whether Actual Knowledge Of Falsity Precludes The Meaningful Cautionary Statement Defense, Allan Horwich

Faculty Working Papers

Congress included a safe harbor for forward-looking statements in the 1995 Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. This affords certain issuers and other specified persons limited protection from civil liability for damages under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 when the projections or objectives in a forward-looking statement are not realized, i.e., turn out to be false. The safe harbor contains two principal elements, in addition to protection for "immaterial" statements: one prong where projections are accompanied by "meaningful cautionary statements," the second prong where the plaintiff fails to prove that the speaker made the …


Continental Grain (Australia) Pty. Ltd. V.Pacific Oilseeds, Inc.: An Unjustifiable Expansion Of Subject Matter Jurisdiction In A Transnational Securities Fraud Case, Joseph A. Marovitch Jan 1980

Continental Grain (Australia) Pty. Ltd. V.Pacific Oilseeds, Inc.: An Unjustifiable Expansion Of Subject Matter Jurisdiction In A Transnational Securities Fraud Case, Joseph A. Marovitch

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

This note will suggest that the holding in Continental Grain repre- sents an unjustifiably expansive application of the conduct test. Recog- nizing the Second Circuit's expertise in the securities law area, this note will critically examine the case of that circuit, concluding that the Sec- ond Circuit would not have found jurisdiction under the conduct test on the facts of Continental Grain.' Next, SEC v. Kasser,8 a Third Cir- cuit case relied upon by the court in Continental Grain, will be criticized as an unwarranted expansion of the conduct test. Unwarranted or not, Kasser also could have been distinguished on …