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Full-Text Articles in Law
Labor Interests And Corporate Power, Matthew T. Bodie
Labor Interests And Corporate Power, Matthew T. Bodie
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Labor unions exert significant power through collective bargaining, pension fund investing, and political advocacy. But in each of these areas, unions face inherent structural limitations that severely constrain these powers. Workers need participation rights in corporate governance to overcome the multiplicity of forces arrayed against them. And rather than obviating the need for unions, worker corporate power would facilitate a different kind of labor representation — a transition to labor power that advocates for occupational interests and forms coalitions across the shifting political interests of different worker groups.
Reconstructing The Corporation: A Mutual-Control Model Of Corporate Governance, Grant M. Hayden, Matthew T. Bodie
Reconstructing The Corporation: A Mutual-Control Model Of Corporate Governance, Grant M. Hayden, Matthew T. Bodie
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The consensus around shareholder primacy is crumbling. Investors, long assumed to be uncomplicated profit-maximizers, are looking for ways to express a wider range of values in allocating their funds. Workers are agitating for greater voice at their workplaces. And prominent legislators have recently proposed corporate law reforms that would put a sizable number of employee representatives on the boards of directors of large public companies. These rumblings of public discontent are echoed in recent corporate law scholarship, which has cataloged the costs of shareholder control, touted the advantages of nonvoting stock, and questioned whether activist holders of various stripes are …
Jury Trial Disparities Between Class Actions And Shareholder Derivative Actions In State Courts, Ann M. Scarlett
Jury Trial Disparities Between Class Actions And Shareholder Derivative Actions In State Courts, Ann M. Scarlett
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Class actions and shareholder derivative lawsuits are both forms of representative litigation that historically had to be brought in the equity courts to be decided by a judge, rather than in the common-law courts to be decided by a jury. In 1938, the federal courts merged law and equity by passing the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which allowed both legal and equitable claims to be heard within the same civil action. After law and equity merged, the Supreme Court interpreted the Seventh Amendment’s preservation of the right to jury trial as including not just actions recognized at common law, …
The Corporation Reborn: From Shareholder Primacy To Shared Governance, Grant M. Hayden, Matthew T. Bodie
The Corporation Reborn: From Shareholder Primacy To Shared Governance, Grant M. Hayden, Matthew T. Bodie
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The consensus around shareholder primacy is crumbling. Investors, long assumed to be uncomplicated profit-maximizers, are looking for ways to express a wider range of values in allocating their funds. Workers are agitating for greater voice at their workplaces. And prominent legislators have recently proposed corporate law reforms that would put a sizable number of employee representatives on the boards of directors of large public companies. These rumblings of public discontent are echoed in recent corporate law scholarship, which has cataloged the costs of shareholder control, touted the advantages of nonvoting stock, and questioned whether activist holders of various stripes are …
A Global System Of Work, A Global System Of Regulation?: Crowdwork And Conflicts Of Law, Miriam A. Cherry
A Global System Of Work, A Global System Of Regulation?: Crowdwork And Conflicts Of Law, Miriam A. Cherry
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On-demand platforms are changing and reshaping our conceptions of both the firm and the work relationship in far-reaching and critical ways, allowing companies to hire workers and to seek customers across national boundaries. Confronted with low pay, wage theft, and other problematic working conditions, gig workers around the world have turned to the courts, attempting to invoke the protections of traditional labor and employment law. While some commentators believe existing forms of labor and employment regulations can stretch to cover on-demand work, others have called for new legal initiatives specifically crafted for online platforms. The goal of this paper is …
Worker Participation, Sustainability, And The Puzzle Of The Volkswagen Emissions Scandal, Matthew T. Bodie
Worker Participation, Sustainability, And The Puzzle Of The Volkswagen Emissions Scandal, Matthew T. Bodie
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In September 2015, Volkswagen's "clean diesel" technology was exposed as a sham. Not only were the company's vehicles discharging dangerously high levels of nitrogen oxide, but VW had intentionally rigged its emissions systems to cheat on environmental tests. In the wake of resignations and criminal investigations, the company's governance system came under justifiable attack. Were VW's famously worker-friendly governance policies to blame? This Chapter examines the root causes of the emissions scandal and concludes that VW's governance culture suffered from dictatorial leadership as well as a cozy relationship between management and labor leaders. This culture of complacency led to a …