Law Commons^™

Once More Into The Bramble Bush: Duty, Causal Contribution, And The Extent Of Legal Responsibility, In Symposium, The John W. Wade Conference On The Third Restatement Of Torts, Richard W. Wright

All Faculty Scholarship

Courts, lawyers, law students, and academics continue to confuse the empirical issue of causal contribution with the distinct normative issues of tortious conduct and legal injury, which precede and frame the causal-contribution inquiry, and the normative issue of the extent of legal responsibility for tortiously caused consequences, which follows the causal-contribution inquiry. In a number of prior articles, I have tried to distinguish and clarify these various issues, which arise not only in tort law, but also in much the same form in criminal law and many other areas of the law. I have focused primarily on distinguishing and clarifying …

Introduction: Theory Informs Business Practice: Introduction, Claire A. Hill

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Who Owns A Corporation And Who Cares?, Richard A. Booth

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This Article focuses on the conventional theory that a corporation is owned by its stockholders and argues that the theory retains little if any explanatory or predictive force. After a brief consideration of the need for and function of legal theories in general and the evolution of the stockholder ownership theory, the Article proceeds to describe how the takeover wars of the 1980s brought into high relief the unavoidably conflicting interests of stockholders and managers, owing primarily to the fact that investor-stockholders are free to diversify whereas managers generally are not. Although the stockholder ownership theory is consistent with the …

Roundtable Discussion: Theory's Contributions To Corporate Law And Practice, Chicago-Kent Law Review

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Implications Of Shareholder Diversification On Corporate Law And Organization: The Case Of The Business Judgment Rule, Peter V. Letsou

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The business judgment rule has been a centerpiece of corporate law for almost two centuries. But over the last several decades, courts and commentators have struggled to find a rationale for the business judgment rule that, at once, reconciles the judicial deference granted to corporate managers with the more demanding standards applied to other professionals, such as doctors and lawyers. This Article attempts to end this struggle by offering a fuller account of the relationship between the preferences of diversified shareholders, on the one hand, and liability rules, on the other. Based on this account, this Article contends that the …

Institutional Foundations For Economic Legal Reform In Transition Economies: The Case Of Competition Policy And Antitrust Enforcement, William E. Kovacic

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The widespread adoption by transition economies of competition policy systems raises important questions about the design and phasing of legal reforms in emerging markets. Success in transition economies in developing useful competition policy programs and other economic legal reforms requires close attention to the establishment of public and private institutions whose effective operation is essential to a legal regime. Properly conceived competition policy programs that account carefully for national circumstances can play a constructive role in promoting economic growth. The content of such programs can be structured to match the institutional capacity of each nation, and the mix of policy …

Vol. 18, No. 4, William K. Strycker

The Illinois Public Employee Relations Report

Contents:

Labor Management Cooperation: Key to Organization and Employee Success, by William K. Strycker

Recent Developments

Further References, compiled by Margaret A. Chaplan

Table Of Contents - Issue 1, Chicago-Kent Law Review

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Comment On Language And Norms In Complex Business Contracting, Claire A. Hill

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Complex contracts, such as those governing loans and acquisitions, create a state of the world-parties entering into a contract thereby become bound. The contract expressly summons up legal consequences for every promise it contains. But the relationship between the promises and the law's force is attenuated. Very often contract provisions set the stage rather than provide the script: accommodation seems more the rule than the exception. Indeed, for most contracting parties, the law's specter is one of many reasons to do what they promised to do, and often, not the most important reason. Parties also feel constrained by reputational and …

Why Contracts Are Written In "Legalese", Claire A. Hill

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Contracts have been reviled since before the Marx Brothers' infamous "there ain't no Sanity Clause" sketch as being replete with duplicative, cumbersome, inartful, and sometimes imprecise language. My Article seeks to understand why practice apparently hasn't made perfect—why the contract production process hasn't been honed to a point that contracts are as clear, and only as long, as would seem to be optimal. I argue that the contracting production process combines rational, and what some would consider irrational, elements to create a serviceable, but arguably second-best, product. But I also argue that what counts as second-best in this and other …

The Written Contract As Safe Harbor For Dishonest Conduct, Lawrence M. Solan

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The parol evidence rule excludes extrinsic evidence of prior or contemporaneous understandings of an agreement when the parties have signed a document that purports to encompass their entire understanding. In theory, this rule is designed to add certainty to business transactions and to inhibit the introduction of unreliable evidence into the litigation system. But in practice, if we eliminate the introduction of precontractual representations and understandings from the dispute resolution process, we create a safe harbor for unethical business practices in the early stages of contract formation. Using insights from linguistics and psychology, the Article argues that this problem is …

The Venture Capital Investment Bust: Did Agency Costs Play A Role? Was It Something Lawyers Helped Structure?, Joseph Bankman, Marcus Cole

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This Article examines the question of why venture capital firms would continue to raise technology funds, and then invest those funds, when they were certain that the business markets for such investments were overvalued preceding the "crash" of April 2000. We interviewed a number of venture capitalists, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and other industry observers in search of an explanation. The explanations offered by key decision makers for the observed investment behavior can be categorized as of three types of theories: agency cost theories, herd behavior and other cognitive bias theories, and non-agency cost theories. Agency cost theories suggest that the activity …

Roundtable Discussion: Corporate Governance, Chicago-Kent Law Review

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Learning From The Storm: Lessons For Illinois Following California's Experience With Electricity Restructuring, William A. Borders

Chicago-Kent Law Review

State by state the role of generation, transmission, and distribution is becoming more dynamic and market driven as regulated electric monopolies shed their vertically integrated structures and reinvent themselves for the competitive marketplace. California's turbulent move to an open electricity market provides a good example of how this process can go wrong. This Note highlights some of the key developments in California's recent energy troubles, and considers the unique challenges for the Illinois electricity market. Borders concludes that through new federal and state transmission policy, heightened demand response, and consumer education programs, regulators can ensure that the market sends price …

Why Some Countries Are Rich And Some Are Poor, Douglass C. North

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Professor North describes the difficulties encountered in promoting development: although economists are well aware of the conditions that promote productivity and creativity, only formal rules can be easily changed. Formal rules are but one part of a set of institutions in which people operate: informal norms of behavior and the enforcement mechanisms for both formal and informal rules have profound effects on human thought and activity. Economists have traditionally endeavored to impose simplistic sets of formal rules on developing countries; this model is largely ineffective because it ignores the role of culture and beliefs in shaping behavior. The difficult but …

A Comprehensive Approach To Conflicts Between Antidiscrimination Laws And Freedom Of Expressive Association After Boy Scouts Of America V. Dale, Adrianne K. Zahner

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This Comment examines the United States Supreme Court decision in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, which held that New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination violated the First Amendment by preventing the Boy Scouts from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation in the selection of members and troop leaders. Zahner analyzes the Dale decision in light of prior freedom of expressive association case law, and reconciles inconsistencies by proposing a comprehensive framework for dealing with conflicts between antidiscrimination laws and freedom of expressive association. The proposed framework provides absolute protection for freedom of association for purely expressive groups, very …

The Same-Sovereign Rule Resurrected: The Supreme Court Rejects The Invocation Of The Fifth Amendment's Privilege Against Self-Incrimination Based Upon Fear Of Foreign Prosecution In United States V. Balsys, Carlin Metzger

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In United States v. Balsys, the Supreme Court examined the scope of the Fifth Amendment's Privilege Against Self-Incrimination when invoked based on a fear of foreign prosecution. Applying the "same-sovereign" rule, the Court held that the Fifth Amendment only binds the government to which it applies and, therefore, the privilege cannot be invoked based solely upon a fear of foreign prosecution. This Comment analyzes the rationale in prior Supreme Court decisions addressing the scope of the privilege against self-incrimination and contends that despite the Court's revival of the same-sovereign rule in Balsys, the privilege can extend to witnesses …

Of Theory And Practice, Tamar Frankel

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Much has been written about theory and practice in the law, and the tension between practitioners and theorists. Judges do not cite theoretical articles often; they rarely "apply" theories to particular cases. These arguments are not revisited. Instead the Article explores the working and interaction of theory and practice, practitioners and theorists. This Article starts with a story about solving a legal issue using our intellectual tools—theory, practice, and their progenies: experience and "gut." Next the Article elaborates on the nature of theory, practice, experience and gut. The third part of the Article discusses theories that are helpful to practitioners …

American Society For Reproductive Medicine Addresses Preconception Gender Selection, Valerie Gutmann Koch

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Nord Issues Gene Patenting Statement, Valerie Gutmann Koch

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Vol. 18, No. 3, James A. Spizzo, Charis Runnels

The Illinois Public Employee Relations Report

Contents:

Emerging Trends in Public Sector Interest Arbitration: Employee Residency Rules, by James A. Spizzo and Charis A. Runnels

Recent Developments

Further References, compiled by Margaret A. Chaplan

Case: Sorensen V. The City Of New York, Keith Pearson

Chicago-Kent Journal of International and Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Controversy: Aristotle G. Mirzaian, Esq., Y2k Who Cares? We Have Bigger Problems: Choice Of Law In Electronic Contracts, 6 Rich. J.L. & Tech. 20 (2000), Jeffrey Kahn

Chicago-Kent Journal of International and Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Controversy: Robert John Araujo's International Tribunals And Rules Of Evidence, Dorislee Jackson

Chicago-Kent Journal of International and Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Who Are "We The People"?: The Legal Response To Twentieth-Century Migration In Germany And The United States, Shannon Roesler

Chicago-Kent Journal of International and Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Misuse Of Deference And International Standards In Narrowing Withholding Of Deportation In Light Of Ins V. Aguirre-Aguirre, Giuseppe Fina

Chicago-Kent Journal of International and Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Imperative To Conscience: The Impact Of Communications Media On The Practice Of Genocide And Other War Crimes, Paul J. Dombeck

Chicago-Kent Journal of International and Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

After Steel Co.: 'Hypothetical Jurisdiction' In The Federal Appellate Courts, Joan E. Steinman

All Faculty Scholarship

In Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment, the United States Supreme Court, sua sponte, denounced the doctrine of "hypothetical jurisdiction," a doctrine that, in some circumstances, allowed courts to assume, arguendo, the existence of jurisdiction and to address the merit questions presented by cases. Several of the Justices distanced themselves from the denunciation, however, and despite the vociferousness of the position taken by the majority, even it found that there were exceptional circumstances in which the Court had acted properly (and presumably in which other courts would act appropriately) in assuming jurisdiction arguendo and addressing merits questions. The …

Kinship Care And The Price Of State Support For Children, Dorthy E. Roberts

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Kinship foster care replaces a traditional, private African American family arrangement with a similar structure that is regulated by state child welfare agencies. Formal kinship care often involves relinquishing custody of children in exchange for services and benefits that families need, and state payments for kinship caregiving are correlated to the level of state supervision of caregivers. Incorporating kinship care into the child welfare system, moreover, sometimes disrupts family ties. This onerous price exacted from poor black families for public assistance stems from the failure of more general support for caregiving and demonstrates the need for fundamental change in our …

Alternative Caretaking And Family Autonomy: Some Thoughts In Response To Dorothy Roberts, Katharine K. Baker

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In this Commentary, Baker highlights two important issues raised by Roberts's article. First, she shows that the structure of state support for caretaking affects caretaking norms. If women, and particularly women of color, want to take advantage of the benefits of more collective caretaking arrangements like kinship networks, the state support should not be limited to individual women who choose to caretake in isolated, non-communal settings. Second, she suggests that in order to maximize the benefits of kinship arrangements, it is important to articulate a theory of state deference to family that does not rely on traditional notions of financial …