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Full-Text Articles in Law

Josephine Sandler Nelson On Volkswagen, J.S. Nelson May 2016

Josephine Sandler Nelson On Volkswagen, J.S. Nelson

J.S. Nelson

No abstract provided.


Fumigating The Criminal Bug: New Research On The Insulation Of Volkswagen’S Middle Management, J.S. Nelson May 2016

Fumigating The Criminal Bug: New Research On The Insulation Of Volkswagen’S Middle Management, J.S. Nelson

J.S. Nelson

New headlines each day reveal wide-spread misconduct and large-scale cheating at top international companies: Volkswagen’s emissions-defeat devices installed on over eleven million cars trace back to a manager’s PowerPoint from as early as 2006. Mitsubishi admits that it has been cheating on emissions standards for the eK and Dayz model cars for the past 25 years—even after a similar scandal almost wiped out the company 15 years ago. Takata’s US $70 million fine for covering up its exploding air bags in Honda, Ford, and other car brands could soon jump to US $200 million if a current …


The Criminal Bug: Volkswagen's Middle Management, J.S. Nelson Dec 2015

The Criminal Bug: Volkswagen's Middle Management, J.S. Nelson

J.S. Nelson

Not only does the 2015-16 Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal have the potential to destroy a $227 billion-dollar multinational company, but it contains eerie echoes of other recent white collar scandals that have claimed lives and cost the public trillions of dollars. Through a case study of Volkswagen, this Essay pioneers a new way to look at these scandals by focusing on their common element: the growing insulation and entrenchment of middle management to coordinate such large-scale wrongdoing.


On The Social Significance Of Large Law Firm Practice, Robert Kagan, Robert Rosen Dec 2015

On The Social Significance Of Large Law Firm Practice, Robert Kagan, Robert Rosen

Robert Kagan

No abstract provided.


Individual Employment Rights Arbitration In The United States: Actors And Outcomes, Alexander Colvin, Mark Gough Nov 2015

Individual Employment Rights Arbitration In The United States: Actors And Outcomes, Alexander Colvin, Mark Gough

Alexander Colvin

The authors examine disposition statistics from employment arbitration cases administered over an 11-year period by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) to investigate the process of dispute resolution in this new institution of employment relations. They investigate the predictors of settlement before the arbitration hearing and then estimate models for the likelihood of employee wins and damage amounts for the 2,802 cases that resulted in an award. Their findings show that larger-scale employers who are involved in more arbitration cases tend to have higher win rates and have lower damage awards made against them. This study also provides evidence of a …


Workshop | Body Worn Video Recorders: The Socio-Technical Implications Of Gathering Direct Evidence, Katina Michael, Alexander Hayes Jun 2015

Workshop | Body Worn Video Recorders: The Socio-Technical Implications Of Gathering Direct Evidence, Katina Michael, Alexander Hayes

Alexander Hayes Mr.

- From in-car video recording to body-worn video recording

- Exploring available technologies: how do they work, pros and cons

- Storing direct evidence in secure storage: factors to consider

- Citizens “shooting” back with POV tech – what are their rights?

- Crowdsourced sousveillance- harnessing public data for forensic profiling

- Police force policies and practices on the application of new media


Institutional Investing When Shareholders Are Not Supreme, Christopher Geczy, Jessica Jeffers, David Musto, Anne Tucker Mar 2015

Institutional Investing When Shareholders Are Not Supreme, Christopher Geczy, Jessica Jeffers, David Musto, Anne Tucker

Anne Tucker

Institutional investors, with trillions in assets under management, hold increasingly important stakes in public companies and fund individual retirement for many Americans, making institutional investors’ behaviors and preferences paramount determinants of capital allocations and the economy. In this paper, we examine high fiduciary duty institutions' (HFDIs') response to decreased profit maximization pressure as measured by the effect of constituency statutes on HFDI investment. We ask this question, in part, to anticipate HFDIs’ response to alternative purpose firms, like benefit corporations. Only with access to institutional investors’ capital can alternative purpose firms gain economic significance to rival the purely for-profit corporation. …


The Ethical Slide, Train Tickets, And Helping The Next Generation Of Corporate Leaders To Choose Differently, J.S. Nelson Jan 2015

The Ethical Slide, Train Tickets, And Helping The Next Generation Of Corporate Leaders To Choose Differently, J.S. Nelson

J.S. Nelson

It has been a pleasure to guest-blog for the last two weeks here at the Glom. (Previous posts available here: onetwothreefourfivesixseveneight, and nine.) This final post will introduce the book that Lynn Stout and I propose writing to give better direction to business people in search of ethical outcomes and to support the teaching of ethics in business schools

Sometimes bad ethical behavior is simply the result of making obviously poor decisions. Consider the very human case of Jonathan Burrows, the former …


The Intracorporate Conspiracy Doctrine And D&O Litigation Incentives, J.S. Nelson Jan 2015

The Intracorporate Conspiracy Doctrine And D&O Litigation Incentives, J.S. Nelson

J.S. Nelson

My previous blogposts (onetwothreefourfivesixseven, and eight) discussed the dangers of granting intracorporate conspiracy immunity to agents who commit coordinated wrongdoing within an organization. The last two blogposts (here and here) highlighted the harm that public and judicial frustration with this immunity inflicts on alternative doctrines. 

In addition to exacerbating blind CEO turnover, substituting alternative doctrines for prosecuting intracorporate conspiracy affects an executive’s incentives under Director’s and Officer’s (D&O) liability insurance. This post builds on arguments that I have made about D&O …


The Intracorporate Conspiracy Doctrine And Ceo Turnover, J.S. Nelson Jan 2015

The Intracorporate Conspiracy Doctrine And Ceo Turnover, J.S. Nelson

J.S. Nelson

My previous blogposts (onetwothreefourfivesix, and seven) discussed why conspiracy prosecutions were the best method to penalize coordinated wrongdoing by agents within an organization. Using alternative doctrines to impose liability on behavior that would otherwise be recognized as an intracorporate conspiracy results in flawed incentives and disproportionate awards.

The fundamental problem with substituting responsible corporate officer doctrine and control person liability for reforming the intracorporate conspiracy doctrine is that these alternative doctrines represent exactly what Professor Martin objects to: actual imposition of blind “respondeat superior” liability. …


Frustration With The Intracorporate Conspiracy Doctrine Distorts Other Areas Of Law, J.S. Nelson Jan 2015

Frustration With The Intracorporate Conspiracy Doctrine Distorts Other Areas Of Law, J.S. Nelson

J.S. Nelson

My previous blogposts (onetwothreefourfive, and six) discussed why conspiracy prosecutions should be used to reach coordinated wrongdoing by agents within an organization. The intracorporate conspiracy doctrine has distorted agency law and inappropriately handicaps the ability of tort and criminal law to regulate the behavior of organizations and their agents. 

My Intracorporate Conspiracy Trap article argues that the intracorporate conspiracy doctrine is not properly based in agency law, and that it should most certainly not be applied throughout tort law and criminal law. As a result of the immunity granted …


The Silenced Connecticut Sex-Abuse Case, J.S. Nelson Jan 2015

The Silenced Connecticut Sex-Abuse Case, J.S. Nelson

J.S. Nelson

My previous blogposts (onetwothreefour, and five) introduced why conspiracy prosecutions should be used to reach wrongdoing by agents within an organization. The 2012 prosecution of Monsignor Lynn for twelve years of transferring predator priests from parish to parish at the command and for the benefit of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was defeated by the intracorporate conspiracy doctrine. Moreover, this was not the first time that the Roman Catholic Church had used the doctrine to help its bureaucrats escape liability for suppressing sex abuse cases. 

In 1997, employees of the Roman …


How We Should Have Tried Monsignor Lynn, J.S. Nelson Jan 2015

How We Should Have Tried Monsignor Lynn, J.S. Nelson

J.S. Nelson

My previous blogposts (onetwothree, and four) introduced why conspiracy prosecutions should be used to reach wrongdoing by agents within a business organization. The same legal analysis applies to religious organizations

We should have been able to charge Monsignor Lynn and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that directed his actions to hide the sexual abuse by priests with criminal conspiracy. Instead, Pennsylvania charged Lynn with two things: child endangerment and conspiracy with the priests

As international news outlets later reported, Lynn could not be guilty of child endangerment because the state’s statute could …


Sex Abuse, Priests, And Corporate Conspiracy, J.S. Nelson Jan 2015

Sex Abuse, Priests, And Corporate Conspiracy, J.S. Nelson

J.S. Nelson

My previous blogposts (onetwo, and three) introduced the topic of how the intracorporate conspiracy doctrine prevents the prosecution of coordinated wrongdoing by individuals within organizations. This post illustrates the doctrine’s effect in the context of a specific organization—here a religious one: the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the systematic transfer of predator priests. This post is based on my article The Intracorporate Conspiracy Trap to be published soon in the Cardozo Law Review. The article is available in draft form here

For twelve years, from 1992 to 2004, as Secretary for Clergy, …


Where Are The Prosecutions For Corporate Conspiracy?, J.S. Nelson Jan 2015

Where Are The Prosecutions For Corporate Conspiracy?, J.S. Nelson

J.S. Nelson

My first and second blogposts introduced why conspiracy prosecutions are particularly important for reaching the coordinated actions of individuals when the elements of wrong-doing may be delegated among members of the group. 

So where are the prosecutions for corporate conspiracy??? The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970 (“RICO”, 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 1961 et seq.), no longer applies to most business organizations and their employees. In fact, business organizations working together with outside agents can form new protected “enterprises.” 

What’s going on here? In this area and many other parts of the law, we are witnessing the power …


Jpmorgan’S Witness And The Holes In Corporate Criminal Law, J.S. Nelson Jan 2015

Jpmorgan’S Witness And The Holes In Corporate Criminal Law, J.S. Nelson

J.S. Nelson

It is a pleasure to be guest-blogging here at The Glom for the next two weeks. My name is Josephine Nelson, and I am an advisor for the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Stanford’s business school. Coming from a business school, I focus on practical applications at the intersection of corporate law and criminal law. I am interested in how legal rules affect ethical decisions within business organizations. Many thanks to Dave Zaring, Gordon Smith, and the other members of The Glom for allowing me to share some work that I have been doing. For easy reading, …


Corporate Conspiracy Charges For The Financial Crisis, J.S. Nelson Jan 2015

Corporate Conspiracy Charges For The Financial Crisis, J.S. Nelson

J.S. Nelson

In my previous blogpost, I granted the merit of defense counsel’s argument that the actions of discrete individual defendants—when the law is not permitted to consider the coordination of those actions—may not satisfy the elements of a prosecutable crime.
But what is the coordination of individuals for a wrongful common purpose? That’s a conspiracy. And, for exactly the reasons that defense counsel articulates, these types of crimes cannot be reached by other forms of prosecution. The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that conspiracy is its own animal. “[C]ollective criminal agreement—partnership in crime—presents a greater potential threat to the public than individual …


All-Units Discounts As A Partial Foreclosure Device, Yong Chao, Guofu Tan Dec 2014

All-Units Discounts As A Partial Foreclosure Device, Yong Chao, Guofu Tan

Yong Chao

All-units discounts (AUD) are pricing schemes that lower a buyer’s marginal price on every unit purchased when the buyer’s purchase exceeds or is equal to a pre-specified threshold. The AUD and related conditional rebates are commonly used in both final-goods and intermediate-goods markets. Although the existing literature has thus far focused on interpreting the AUD as a price discrimination tool, investment incentive program, or rent-shifting instrument, the antitrust concerns on the AUD and related conditional rebates are often their plausible exclusionary effects.

In this article, we investigate strategic effects of volume-threshold based AUD used by a dominant firm in the …


Mirror As Prism, Kenneth Fox Dec 2013

Mirror As Prism, Kenneth Fox

Kenneth H Fox

As cooperative private international dispute resolution practices become increasingly common, it is tempting for conflict practitioners to assume that the human relations insights, skills, and practices that worked well for them at home will be equally effective (and appropriate) in an international, cross-cultural environment. Attending to the human dimension of conflict and interaction should be a central part of global negotiation and dispute resolution practice.

This Essay focuses on two dimensions of reflective and reflexive practice. It first discusses the nature of reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action from a modernist (“reflective”) and postmodern (“reflexive”) perspective. It then examines how engaging with practice …


The Quickly--Evolving Tax Filing Status For Same-Gender Couples, John Treu Dec 2013

The Quickly--Evolving Tax Filing Status For Same-Gender Couples, John Treu

John S. Treu

Discusses the evolving law regarding federal income tax filing status for same-gender couples.


Solidarity And Rights: Two To Tango: A Response To Joseph A. Mccartin, Lance Compa Oct 2013

Solidarity And Rights: Two To Tango: A Response To Joseph A. Mccartin, Lance Compa

Lance A Compa

[Excerpt] Thanks to Joseph McCartin for advancing this debate with an insightful critique of the workers’-rights-as-human-rights framework and for his generous treatment of the series of Human Rights Watch reports in which I had a hand. McCartin so fairly presents the human rights case, even while disagreeing with it, that it’s hard to respond without simply borrowing from his framing of my own views. But I’ll try.


Strategic Effects Of Three-Part Tariffs Under Oligopoly, Yong Chao Jul 2013

Strategic Effects Of Three-Part Tariffs Under Oligopoly, Yong Chao

Yong Chao

The distinct element of a three-part tariff, compared with linear pricing or a two-part tariff, is its quantity target within which the marginal price is zero. This quantity target instrument enriches the firm's strategy set in dictating the competition to a specific level, even in the absence of usual price discrimination motive. With general differentiated linear demand system, the competitive effect of a three-part tariff in contrast to linear pricing depends on the degree of substitutability between products: competition is intensified when two products are more differentiated, yet softened when two products are more substitutable.


Labor Market Data Needs Relating To Antidiscrimination Activity: Comment, Ronald Ehrenberg Jul 2013

Labor Market Data Needs Relating To Antidiscrimination Activity: Comment, Ronald Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] Barbara Bergmann's background paper divides data needs in the antidiscrimination area into data that would be useful in the formulation of national policy and data that would be useful as an aid in enforcing the laws and executive orders against discrimination. Although the former are likely to be of greatest concern to the commission, she has performed a valuable service by discussing these interrelated needs in one place. I find much to agree with, and very little to disagree with or question, in her paper. The presentation is, in the main, an objective one and she tempers her desire …


A Diagnosis Of Inherent Problems In Enhancing Service Quality Through Internal Marketing And Organizational Identification In Macau And Singapore Casinos, Sudhir Kale, Sangita De Jun 2013

A Diagnosis Of Inherent Problems In Enhancing Service Quality Through Internal Marketing And Organizational Identification In Macau And Singapore Casinos, Sudhir Kale, Sangita De

Sudhir H. Kale

With spectacular growth in demand since opening the market to foreign competition, executives within the Macau casino industry have focused their attention on enhancing capacity and opening new casino properties. Meanwhile, the Singapore casino market, barely two years old, has already produced revenues comparable to the Las Vegas Strip. Despite stellar past successes, the long-term scenario for the casino industry in both Macau and Singapore could spell trouble. Specifically, service quality stands to suffer because operators have not devoted adequate thought to their service culture and internal marketing strategy. With overall capacity in Asia slated to increase significantly in the …


Designing Culturally Compatible Internet Gaming Sites, Sudhir Kale Jun 2013

Designing Culturally Compatible Internet Gaming Sites, Sudhir Kale

Sudhir H. Kale

Rising e-commerce volumes the world over provide opportunities to global marketers to expand their markets using the Internet. While Internet casinos have had their share of failures, the industry still rakes in three times the revenues as web pornography. Converging web technology allows for Internet gaming operators to expand their markets all over the world. However, appealing to consumers in different countries and regions requires adaptation of websites to the cultural milieu of the various target markets. This paper reviews existing literature on culture and website design and goes on to discuss the impact of culture on designing Internet gaming …


American Workplace Dispute Resolution In The Individual Rights Era, Alexander Colvin May 2013

American Workplace Dispute Resolution In The Individual Rights Era, Alexander Colvin

Alexander Colvin

This article presents a theoretical conceptualization of the rise of alternative dispute resolution and its impact on American employment relations in the individual rights era. The idea of an industrial relations system advanced by Dunlop is no longer a plausible general approach for understanding American employment relations given the decline of organized labor. This article examines the question of whether a new individual employment rights-based system of employment relations has replaced it. The old New Deal industrial relations system was based on three pillars: labor contracts that provided a web of rules governing the workplace; economic strikes, actual or threatened, …


The Death Of The Income Tax: A Progressive Consumption Tax And The Path To Fiscal Reform, Daniel Goldberg Apr 2013

The Death Of The Income Tax: A Progressive Consumption Tax And The Path To Fiscal Reform, Daniel Goldberg

Daniel S. Goldberg

The Death of the Income Tax explains how the current income tax is needlessly complex, contains perverse incentives against saving and investment, fails to use modern technology to ease compliance and collection burdens, and is subject to micromanaging and mismanaging by Congress. Daniel Goldberg proposes that the solution to the problems of the current income tax is completely replacing it with a progressive consumption tax collected electronically at the point of sale.


Introduction To Eugene V. Debs: Citizen And Socialist, Nick Salvatore Mar 2013

Introduction To Eugene V. Debs: Citizen And Socialist, Nick Salvatore

Nick Salvatore

[Excerpt] This is a social biography of Eugene Victor Debs. It is a traditional biography in that it emphasizes this one individual's personal and public life as far as the evidence allows. But the book is also a piece of social history that assumes individuals do not stand outside the culture and society they grew in and from. I have stressed each aspect of Debs's story in order to present both the importance of the man and a more complete picture of the political and cultural struggles his society engaged in during his lifetime. Neither in his time nor in …


Deeply Within: Catholicism, Faith And History, Nick Salvatore Mar 2013

Deeply Within: Catholicism, Faith And History, Nick Salvatore

Nick Salvatore

[Excerpt] In the decade I spent living with Gene Debs, I thought much about faith's relation to intellect, especially in the political realm. It was not just that a socialist in capitalist America needed faith but rather that Debs's very vision of America's promise was itself a profound act of faith. But with the exception of the last chapter, which I titled, "A Species of Purging," following a phrase in one of Debs's prison letters, overt discussion of any religious sensibility was largely sotto voce, echoes of a private dialogue with myself. Pleased as I was with the book when …


The Advocate’S Dilemma: Framing Migrant Rights In National Settings, Maria Cook Jan 2013

The Advocate’S Dilemma: Framing Migrant Rights In National Settings, Maria Cook

Maria Lorena Cook

This article identifies and explores the dilemma of migrant advocacy in advanced industrial democracies, focusing specifically on the contemporary United States. On the one hand, universal norms such as human rights, which are theoretically well suited to advancing migrants’ claims, may have little resonance within national settings. On the other hand, the debates around which immigration arguments typically turn, and the terrain on which advocates must fight, derive their values and assumptions from a nation-state framework that is self-limiting. The article analyzes the limits of human rights arguments, discusses the pitfalls of engaging in national policy debates, and details the …