Law Commons^™

Corporate Policy And The Coherence Of Delaware Takeover Law, Richard E. Kihlstrom, Michael L. Wachter

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

This Article presents a model that can be used to explain key elements of Delaware takeover law. By incorporating corporate policy as a key variable in the model, Delaware law’s management discretion rule can be shown to be best suited for maximizing the value of the corporation and the shareholders’ interest under a set of reasonable assumptions. By allowing for occasional market mispricing and the agency costs associated with managing to the market, we demonstrate that a shareholder choice regime would likely lead to suboptimal investment decisions. In our model, managers are assumed to have better information regarding alternative ...

Turf Struggle: Land, Sovereignty, And Sovereign Immunity, Catherine T. Struve

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

Access To Networks: Economic And Constitutional Connections, Daniel F. Spulber, Christopher S. Yoo

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

Pliability Rules, Abraham Bell, Gideon Parchomovsky

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

Can A Model Penal Code Second Save The States From Themselves?, Paul H. Robinson, Michael T. Cahill

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

Other contributors to this Symposium suggest a variety of changes to the Model Penal Code that they think justify producing a Model Penal Code Second. We offer such suggestions elsewhere. We want to use this space to discuss a slightly different, but related, subject: the need for, and potential effect of, a Model Penal Code Second as a spur to reforming current American criminal codes. Probably the most important point we can contribute is to make clear that current American criminal codes are in serious trouble. About one-third of the states never adopted a modern criminal code during the codification ...

The Role Of Deterrence In The Formulation Of Criminal Law Rules: At Its Worst When Doing Its Best, Paul H. Robinson

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

For the past several decades, the deterrence of crime has been a centerpiece of criminal law reform. Law-givers have sought to optimize the control of crime by devising a penalty-setting system that assigns criminal punishments of a magnitude sufficient to deter a thinking individual from committing a crime. Although this seems initially an intuitively compelling strategy, we are going to suggest that is a poor one; poor for two reasons. First, its effectiveness rests on a set of assumptions that on examination cannot be sustained. Second, the attempt to employ the strategy generates a good many crimogenic costs that are ...

Regionalization Of International Criminal Law Enforcement: A Preliminary Exploration, William W. Burke-White

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

Shareholder Value And Auditor Independence, William W. Bratton

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

This Article questions the practice of framing problems concerning auditors’ professional responsibility inside a principal-agent paradigm. If professional independence is to be achieved, auditors cannot be enmeshed in agency relationships with the shareholders of their audit clients. As agents, the auditors by definition become subject to the principal’s control and cannot act independently. For the same reason, auditors’ duties should be neither articulated in the framework of corporate law fiduciary duty, nor conceived relationally at all. These assertions follow from an inquiry into the operative notion of the shareholder-beneficiary. The Article unpacks the notion of the shareholder and tells ...

The Value Of Giving Away Secrets, Oren Bar-Gill, Gideon Parchomovsky

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

This Essay demonstrates the strategic advantage of narrow patents and unprotected publication of R&D output. Broad patents might stifle follow-on improvements by deterring potential cumulative innovators, who fear being held up by the initial inventor at the ex post licensing stage. By opting for a narrower patent and unprotected publication, the initial patent holder commits not to hold up follow-on inventors, thus promoting sequential innovation and generating lucrative licensing fees. Counterintuitively, in cumulative innovation settings, less protection benefits the patentee. This finding may serve as a counter-force to the much-lamented "anti-commons" problem. More generally, our theory demonstrates that the divergence between private interests and social objectives - on both the static and dynamic dimensions of intellectual property - is not as great as conventionally believed. Our theory bridges yet another gap; that between the two main theoretic strands in patent law scholarship - the property rights perspective and the information revelation perspective. It also explains the recent trend toward unprotected publication of information. Finally, we propose an important reform of the novelty requirement in patent law that would further encourage narrow patents and unprotected publication by bolstering the credibility of a patentees commitment not to patent previously published research findings.

Avoiding Moral Bankruptcy, David A. Skeel Jr.

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

The Real-World Shift In Criminal Procedure, Stephanos Bibas

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

The Implications Of Transition Theory For Stare Decisis, Jill E. Fisch

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

Child Welfare And Civil Rights, Dorothy E. Roberts

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

Where Shall We Live? Class And The Limitations Of Fair Housing Law, Wendell Pritchett

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

This paper examines the effort to secure fair housing laws at the local, state and federal levels in the 1950s, focusing in particular on New York City and state. It will examine the arguments that advocates made regarding the role the law should play in preventing housing discrimination, and the relationship of these views to advocates' understanding of property rights in general. My paper will argue that fair housing advocates had particular conceptions about the importance of housing in American society that both supported and limited their success. By arguing that minorities only sought what others wanted - a single-family home ...

Converted Or Unconverted: To Whom Do We Preach?, Amy L. Wax

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

Apprendi In The States: The Virtues Of Federalism As A Structural Limit On Errors, Stephanos Bibas

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

Rethinking The Commitment To Free, Local Television, Christopher S. Yoo

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

Is There A Role For Lawyers In Preventing Future Enrons?, Jill E. Fisch, Kenneth M. Rosen

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

Following the collapse of the Enron Corporation, the ethical obligations of corporate attorneys have received increased scrutiny. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, enacted in response to calls for corporate reform, specifically requires the Securities and Exchange Commission to address the lawyer’s role by requiring covered attorneys to “report up” evidence of corporate wrongdoing to key corporate officers, and, in some circumstances, to the board of directors. Failure to “report up” subjects a lawyer to liability under federal law.

This Article argues that the reporting up requirement reflects a second-best approach to corporate governance reform. Rather than focusing on the ...

Of Property And Anti-Property, Abraham Bell, Gideon Parchomovsky

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

Immigration Restrictions As Employment Discrimination, Howard F. Chang

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

In this paper, I analyze restrictions on immigration to the United States as a form of government-mandated employment discrimination against aliens. Through our immigration laws, we deny aliens access to valuable employment opportunities that are open to natives. Under our immigration and nationality laws, we base this discrimination explicitly on circumstances of birth beyond the control of the alien. I argue that immigration restrictions thereby violate our liberal ideals of equality, which require a cosmopolitan perspective that extends equal concern to all individuals. Furthermore, even if we assume a less demanding moral theory that allows us to give the interests ...

Anticompetitive Settlement Of Intellectual Property Disputes, Herbert J. Hovenkamp, Mark D. Janis, Mark A. Lemley

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

The overwhelming majority of intellectual property lawsuits settle before trial. These settlements involve agreements between the patentee and the accused infringer, parties who are often competitors before the lawsuit. Because these competitors may agree to stop competing, to regulate the price each charges, and to exchange information about products and prices, settlements of intellectual property disputes naturally raise antitrust concerns. In this paper, we suggest a way to reconcile the interests of intellectual property law and antitrust law in evaluating intellectual property settlements. In Part I, we provide background on the issue. Part II argues that in most cases courts ...

Final Report Of The Kentucky Penal Code Revision Project, Paul H. Robinson, Kentucky Criminal Justice Council Staff

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

The Kentucky Criminal Justice Council, a constitutional body in Kentucky, undertook this project to examine the problems with Kentucky criminal law and to rewrite the Kentucky criminal code. This two-volume Final Report of the Kentucky Penal Code Revision Project proposes a new criminal code, in volume 1, together with an official commentary, in volume 2, that explains each provision and how and why it differs from existing law. The introduction to the Report summarizes the reasons for and the importance of criminal code reform, and describes the techniques used in this rewrite project, including both the project’s drafting principles ...

Diminished Rationality, Diminished Responsibility, Stephen J. Morse

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

Exhaustion Under The Prison Litigation Reform Act: The Consequence Of Procedural Error, Kermit Roosevelt Iii

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

Speaking Volumes: Musings On The Issues Of The Day, Inspired By The Memory Of Mary Joe Frug, Regina Austin, Elizabeth M. Schneider

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

Can Majority Voting Provisions Do It All?, David A. Skeel Jr.

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

Harmonizing Substantive-Criminal Law-Values And Criminal Procedure: The Case Of Alford And Nolo Contendere Pleas, Stephanos Bibas

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

The Right To Remain Silent Helps Only The Guilty, Stephanos Bibas

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

Enron, Sarbanes-Oxley And Accounting: Rules Versus Principles Versus Rents, William W. Bratton

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

Corporate Control Transactions: Introduction, Edward B. Rock, Michael L. Wachter

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.