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Articles 31 - 43 of 43

Full-Text Articles in Law

“Antitrust's Least Glorious Hour”: The Robinson-Patman Act, Roger D. Blair, Christina Depasquale Jan 2014

“Antitrust's Least Glorious Hour”: The Robinson-Patman Act, Roger D. Blair, Christina Depasquale

UF Law Faculty Publications

In The Antitrust Paradox, Robert Bork explored many of antitrust’s misadventures. Specifically, Bork severely criticized the Robinson-Patman Act, which he characterized as “antitrust’s least glorious hour.” In this paper, we explore Bork’s criticism of the Robinson-Patman Act along with those of other legal scholars and economists. We analyze the central prohibitions of the act and explore their competitive implications. We also show that the act’s unfortunate prohibitions have been muted by the antitrust agencies’ benign neglect and three recent Supreme Court decisions.


The Puzzling Lack Of Cooperatives, Peter Molk Jan 2014

The Puzzling Lack Of Cooperatives, Peter Molk

UF Law Faculty Publications

Some of the most recognizable companies, including Land O'Lakes, REI, the Associated Press, Ace Hardware, and State Farm Insurance, are organized as cooperatives--firms owned by their suppliers, workers, or customers. Yet aside from isolated areas of the economy, cooperatives constitute only a small portion of American enterprise, which is otherwise dominated by investor-owned firms. Conventional wisdom assumes that firms either start as cooperatives or convert to cooperatives when cooperatives offer the highest ongoing benefits to owners, and it explains the lack of cooperatives by suggesting that cooperatives usually do not maximize ongoing benefits. This Article looks at entrepreneurs' and brokers' …


Borrowing By Any Other Name: Why Presidential "Spending Cuts" Would Still Exceed The Debt Ceiling, Neil H. Buchanan, Michael C. Dorf Jan 2014

Borrowing By Any Other Name: Why Presidential "Spending Cuts" Would Still Exceed The Debt Ceiling, Neil H. Buchanan, Michael C. Dorf

UF Law Faculty Publications

On three occasions since mid-2011, the United States has come perilously close to exhausting its borrowing authority under a statutory limit commonly called the "debt ceiling." In prior work, the current authors argued that, in the event that the debt ceiling is reached, the President will face a "trilemma" in which any realistic action he takes — defaulting on government obligations, raising taxes, or issuing debt in excess of the statutory ceiling — would unconstitutionally usurp legislative power. We argued that in such circumstances, violating the debt ceiling would be the "least unconstitutional option." Nonetheless, most pundits and politicians, including …


House Swaps: A Strategic Bankruptcy Solution To The Foreclosure Crisis, Lynn M. Lopucki Jan 2014

House Swaps: A Strategic Bankruptcy Solution To The Foreclosure Crisis, Lynn M. Lopucki

UF Law Faculty Publications

Since the price peak in 2006, home values have fallen more than 30%, leaving millions of Americans with negative equity in their homes. Until the Supreme Court’s 1993 decision in Nobelman v. American Savings Bank, the bankruptcy system would have provided many such homeowners with a remedy. They could have filed bankruptcy, discharged the negative equity, committed to pay the mortgage holders the full values of their homes, and retained those homes. In Nobelman, the Court misinterpreted reasonably clear statutory language and invented legislative history to resolve a 3-1 split of circuits in favor of the minority view. The Court …


Pfics Gone Wild!, Monica Gianni Jan 2014

Pfics Gone Wild!, Monica Gianni

UF Law Faculty Publications

This article discusses the U.S. tax rules for passive foreign investment companies, or PFICs. The historical development leading up to the enactment of the PFIC rules in 1986 is examined. Unexpected tax consequences resulting from the PFIC rules are analyzed in detail. Recommendations to modify the rules so that they do have such onerous consequences follow, concluding that the PFIC rules cannot be sufficiently fixed and should be repealed.


When Subchapter S Meets Subchapter C, Martin J. Mcmahon Jr., Daniel L. Simmons Jan 2014

When Subchapter S Meets Subchapter C, Martin J. Mcmahon Jr., Daniel L. Simmons

UF Law Faculty Publications

It is often said that “an S corporation is a corporation that is taxed like a partnership.” This statement is incorrect. An S corporation resembles a partnership only in that it generally does not pay income taxes and its income and losses pass through to the shareholders and retain their character as they pass through. Also, like a partnership, basis adjustments to an S corporation shareholder's stock reflect allocations of income, expense, loss, and distributions. However, no other rules of subchapter K governing partnership taxation apply to S corporations. Most of the rules governing the relationship between an S corporation …


Smoke And Mirrors: Model Penal Code § 305.7 And Compassionate Release, E. Lea Johnston Jan 2014

Smoke And Mirrors: Model Penal Code § 305.7 And Compassionate Release, E. Lea Johnston

UF Law Faculty Publications

The American Law Institute has revised the sentencing articles of the Model Penal Code to include three important sentence modification measures. One of these provisions, Model Penal Code § 305.7, would allow a judge to reduce a prison sentence at any time for any “compelling” reason, if the purposes of sentencing justify sentence modification. Compelling circumstances may include advanced age, physical infirmity, or any other circumstance that sufficiently affects the retributive or utilitarian aims that animate limiting retributivism, the philosophy undergirding the revised Model Penal Code sentencing articles. Limiting retributivism provides that individual sentences should occur within the bounds of …


Open-Minded Listening, Jonathan R. Cohen Jan 2014

Open-Minded Listening, Jonathan R. Cohen

UF Law Faculty Publications

Parties in conflict do not typically listen to one another well. On a physical level they hear what their counterparts say, but on a deeper level they do not truly absorb or think seriously about their counterparts’ words. If they listen at all, they listen with an ear toward how they can refute rather than toward what they may learn. This article explores how we might change this. In contrast to prior research examining external aspects of listening (e.g., how being listened to influences the speaker), this article probes the internal side of listening, specifically, whether the listener will allow …


New Era Of Lavish Land Grants: Taking Public Property For Private Use And Brandt Revocable Trust V. United States, Danaya C. Wright Jan 2014

New Era Of Lavish Land Grants: Taking Public Property For Private Use And Brandt Revocable Trust V. United States, Danaya C. Wright

UF Law Faculty Publications

J.R. Pole's new book, Contract and Consent: Representation and the Jury in Anglo-American Legal History, is a delightful romp through centuries of Anglo-American history, law, and political theory. It would be better titled Contract, Consent, Juries, Sovereignty, and the State: A History of the Anglicization of Western Political Ideas. But in any event, this delightful set of essays, some more closely linked together than others, spans a breathtaking set of ideas--from sovereignty to the social compact to slavery to the moral agency of juries--through a breathtaking set of sources--from Slade's Case to Shakespeare to Aquinas to Faust to …


The Struggle For Justice In The Civil Rights March From Selma To Montgomery: The Legacy Of The Magna Carta And The Common Law Tradition, Winston P. Nagan Jan 2014

The Struggle For Justice In The Civil Rights March From Selma To Montgomery: The Legacy Of The Magna Carta And The Common Law Tradition, Winston P. Nagan

UF Law Faculty Publications

The article introduces the reader to the idea that justice involves social action and struggle. It then shifts the perspective to the struggle for justice in historic memory. The author focuses on the struggle to limit sovereign absolutism, the outcome of which is reflected in the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta was not a gift of the sovereign, it represented a political struggle to obtain it. The article then traces the evolution of law in the common law tradition and the importance of casuistic legal methods to ground the specific rights of citizens. The article draws reference to the struggle …


Teaching Llcs Through A Problem-Based Approach, Michelle M. Harner, Robert J. Rhee Jan 2014

Teaching Llcs Through A Problem-Based Approach, Michelle M. Harner, Robert J. Rhee

UF Law Faculty Publications

Case studies and case simulations can be used to teach LLCs with an eye toward training business lawyers. These tools can be used in the traditional four-credit Business Associations (BA) course to supplement traditional teaching materials with mini-case studies that accent and apply analysis of primary legal sources. Alternatively, case studies and case simulations can be the centerpiece of a specialized course on LLCs. We discuss both approaches in this short essay.


Deal Deconstructions, Case Studies, And Case Simulations: Toward Practice Readiness With New Pedagogies In Teaching Business And Transactional Law, Michelle M. Harner, Robert J. Rhee Jan 2014

Deal Deconstructions, Case Studies, And Case Simulations: Toward Practice Readiness With New Pedagogies In Teaching Business And Transactional Law, Michelle M. Harner, Robert J. Rhee

UF Law Faculty Publications

In this short commentary, we explore the use of two interrelated pedagogical methods for teaching transactional and business law. The first method is deal deconstruction, which analyzes the set of final deal documents and outcomes. This method is backward-looking, conducting a post-mortem on business transactions and analyzing the parties’ choices memorialized in the agreement against the legal and financial alternatives. The second method involves case studies and simulations, which are commonly seen in business schools. This method is forward-looking, exposing students to the uncertainties and situational contexts of doing deals and deal-related litigation. Together, these complementary methods help students understand …


Recent Developments In Federal Income Taxation: The Year 2013, Martin J. Mcmahon Jr., Ira B. Shepard, Daniel L. Simmons Jan 2014

Recent Developments In Federal Income Taxation: The Year 2013, Martin J. Mcmahon Jr., Ira B. Shepard, Daniel L. Simmons

UF Law Faculty Publications

This recent developments outline discusses, and provides context to understand the significance of, the most important judicial decisions and administrative rulings and regulations promulgated by the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department during 2013 – and sometimes a little farther back in time if we find the item particularly humorous or outrageous. Most Treasury Regulations, however, are so complex that they cannot be discussed in detail and, anyway, only a devout masochist would read them all the way through; just the basic topic and fundamental principles are highlighted – unless one of us decides to go nuts and spend several …