Law Commons^™

Investing In Distressed Italian Companies Under The Reformed Italian Bankruptcy Law - A Comparison With The Us Bankruptcy Code, Pierantonio Musso

Pierantonio Musso

This article presents a scheme to profitably invest in distressed Italian companies by taking advantage of the Italian Bankruptcy Law in comparison with the US Bankruptcy Code. The risks connected to the insolvency proceeding are analyzed under their economic effects and foreseen in their general appearance. Specific remedies to avoid or mitigate the potential risks are provided. Singular advantages, available only in the proposed investment scheme under the Italian Law, are described. As a result the investment produces a less risky and more profitable outcome than an investment in a non-distressed and non-Italian target company.

Rating The Regulation Of Rating Agencies: Credit Rating Agency Reform In The Aftermath Of The Global Financial Crisis, Nan S. Ellis

Nan S Ellis

In this article, we identify five issues related to performance of credit rating agencies and consider the Dodd-Frank Act in light of these five interrelated issues. Others have commented on credit rating agency performance and offered proposed solutions. Our article is unique, however, in that it offers a comprehensive examination of these interrelated issues. We recognize that any regulatory reform must consider all aspects of the issue rather than to deal with isolated, incremental reform. Moreover, we offer an interdisciplinary approach which considers the relevant finance literature as well as legal commentary.

Freezing Assets In The War On Terror: Ofac And The Fourth Amendment, Rebecca Kagan Sternhell

Rebecca Kagan Sternhell

In 2001, President Bush issued Executive Order 13224 declaring a state of national emergency and triggering an array of emergency powers. Chief among these powers was the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”), which permits the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”) to freeze the assets and accounts of suspected terrorists and their affiliates. Recently OFAC has gone after U.S. charities. Three US charities filed suit alleging Fourth Amendment violations. Each organization received a different judicial determination on the Fourth Amendment question. The paper discusses these three cases and demonstrates no consensus on the Fourth Amendment issue. There …

Complexity, Innovation And The Regulation Of Modern Financial Markets, Dan Awrey

Dan Awrey

The intellectual origins of the global financial crisis (GFC) can be traced back to blind spots emanating from within conventional financial theory. These blind spots are distorted reflections of the perfect market assumptions underpinning the canonical theories of financial economics: modern portfolio theory; the Modigliani and Miller capital structure irrelevancy principle; the capital asset pricing model and, perhaps most importantly, the efficient market hypothesis. In the decades leading up to the GFC, these assumptions were transformed from empirically (con)testable propositions into the central articles of faith of the ideology of modern finance: the foundations of a widely held belief in …

The Case Against Credit Bidding: Optimal Creditor Behavior In Chapter 11 Collateral Auctions, Jared Kawalsky

Jared Kawalsky

This paper will attempt to advance some theoretical justifications for recent bankruptcy decisions that have denied the existence of a right for secured creditors to credit bid in the course of a reorganization under § 1129 of the Bankruptcy Code. § 363 of the Bankruptcy Code specifically grants secured creditors the right to bid their credit in a sale of their collateral as part of a going concern sale. However, in a reorganiztion under § 1129, secured creditors are not necessarily permitted to participate in an auction of the collateral underlying their liens. Relying on the broad auction theory literature …

Delaware’S Relevance In Chapter 22: Who Is “Courting Failure” Now?, Ruth S. Lee

Ruth S Lee

This study presents surprising new statistical evidence that contributes to the current “over-heated” academic debate about the Delaware courts’ role in Chapter 11 failure. In 2001, Professor LoPucki published an influential article suggesting that when large corporations file for bankruptcy under Chapter 11, they fail at a dramatically higher rate in Delaware courts than in other jurisdictions. He attributed this to corruption. His article enraged many academics and practitioners, and ignited many articles in the past two decades. This study presents startling evidence that while Chapter 11s filed in Delaware courts did have much higher failure rates from 1991-1996, after …

Pay For Regulator Performance, Todd Henderson, Frederick Tung

Todd Henderson

Few doubt that executive compensation arrangements encouraged the excessive risk taking by banks that led to the recent Financial Crisis. Accordingly, academics and lawmakers have called for the reform of banker pay practices. In this Article, we argue that regulator pay is to blame as well, and that fixing it may be easier and more effective than reforming banker pay. Regulatory failures during the Financial Crisis resulted at least in part from a lack of sufficient incentives for examiners to act aggressively to prevent excessive risk. Bank regulators are rarely paid for performance, and in atypical cases involving performance bonus …

Pay For Regulator Performance, Todd Henderson, Fred Tung

Todd Henderson

Few doubt that executive compensation arrangements encouraged the excessive risk taking by banks that led to the recent Financial Crisis. Accordingly, academics and lawmakers have called for the reform of banker pay practices. In this Article, we argue that regulator pay is to blame as well, and that fixing it may be easier and more effective than reforming banker pay. Regulatory failures during the Financial Crisis resulted at least in part from a lack of sufficient incentives for examiners to act aggressively to prevent excessive risk. Bank regulators are rarely paid for performance, and in atypical cases involving performance bonus …

The End Of Mortgage Securitization? Electronic Registration As A Threat To Bankruptcy Remotenes, John P. Hunt, Richard Stanton, Nancy Wallace

John P Hunt

A central tenet of asset securitization in the United States—that assets are bankruptcy remote from their sponsors—may be threatened by innovations in the transfer of mortgage loans from the loan-originators (sponsors) to the legal entities that own the mortgage pools (the Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs)). The major legal argument advanced in the paper is that because the mortgage is an interest in real property, the bankruptcy-remoteness rules applicable to real property, including § 544(a)(3) of the Bankruptcy Code, create a risk to the bankruptcy remoteness of mortgage transactions unless proper recording occurs. We review the traditional mortgage transfer process and …

"Systemic Poverty As A Cause Of Recessions", Robert Ashford

Robert Ashford

This article argues that the failure to address and ameliorate systemic poverty is a major cause of recessions. Recessions occur (and sub-optimal employment and growth persist) when a critical mass of market participants come to believe that the distribution of future earning capacity is not sufficient to purchase what can be produced despite the physical and technological capacity to employ available labor and capital to produce more over the same period even at lower unit cost. The essence of systemic poverty is widespread inadequate earning capacity. In recessionary periods, with rising unemployment, the problem of inadequate earning capacity (which perennially …

Information Failures In Structured Finance And Dodd'frank's "Improvements To The Regulation Of Credit Rating Agencies", Steven R. Mcnamara

Steven R. McNamara

This article analyzes the credit rating agency reform provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act’s “Improvements to the Regulation of Credit Rating Agencies” in light of the massive failures in the ratings of structured finance securities leading up to the 2008 credit crisis. The primary cause of ratings failure was the flawed quantitative ratings models used by the rating agencies; conflicted behavior on the part of the rating agencies was also an important but secondary cause. The key mechanical flaw in the ratings models was the method used to determination correlation, a measure of the likelihood that one borrower would default in …

Voice Without Say: Why More Capitalist Firms Are Not (Genuinely) Participatory, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Why are most capitalist enterprises of any size organized as authoritarian bureaucracies rather than incorporating genuinely employee participation that would give the workers real authority? Even firms with employee participation programs leave virtually all decision making power in the hands of management. The standard answer is that hierarchy is more economically efficient than any sort of genuine participation, so that participatory firms would be less productive or efficient and lose out to more traditional competitors. This answer is indefensible. After surveying the history, legal status, and varieties of employee participation, I examine and reject as question-begging the argument that the …

A Pattern Of Unaccountability: Rating Agency Liability, The Dodd-Frank Act, And A Financial Crisis That Could Have Been Prevented, Stephen P. Alicanti

Stephen P Alicanti

By opining on the credit quality of structured debt products, credit rating agencies guide investment decisions and facilitate the debt capital markets. In the years leading up to the financial crisis of 2007, loans were commonly issued to individuals with poor credit histories and insufficient income. After those loans were originated, investment banks packaged them into securitized debt products and sold sections (tranches) to investors. Many of those products received credit rating agencies’ highest endorsement of creditworthiness. Despite their high ratings, those products failed during the financial crisis and devastated individual investors, investment banks, and insurance companies. The financial shockwaves …

A Pattern Of Unaccountability: Rating Agency Liability, The Dodd-Frank Act, And A Financial Crisis That Could Have Been Prevented, Stephen P. Alicanti

Stephen P Alicanti

By opining on the credit quality of structured debt products, credit rating agencies guide investment decisions and facilitate the debt capital markets. In the years leading up to the financial crisis of 2007, loans were commonly issued to individuals with poor credit histories and insufficient income. After those loans were originated, investment banks packaged them into securitized debt products and sold sections (tranches) to investors. Many of those products received credit rating agencies’ highest endorsement of creditworthiness. Despite their high ratings, those products failed during the financial crisis and devastated individual investors, investment banks, and insurance companies. The financial shockwaves …

Antitrust Law In The Wake Of The Recent Financial Crises: A Critical Analysis Of The Status Quo And A Roadmap For Reinforcing Enforceability, Rodrigo Olivares-Caminal Dr. / Prof., Ioannis Kokkoris Dr. / Prof.

Rodrigo Olivares-Caminal Dr. / Prof.

During the financial crisis companies and markets found themselves in distressed situations. Competition authorities across the globe had to deal with controversial issues such as the application of the failing firm defence in merger transactions as well as assessment of crisis cartels. This chapter considers antitrust policy in periods of crisis, and in particular the ‘failing firm’ defence in merger control and the treatment of crisis cartels. Antitrust policy played a useful role in a period of crisis but might be a secondary concern during such times. This approach is the key to the long-term benefits of competition for consumers …

Community Collateral Damage: A Question Of Priorities, Andrea J. Boyack

Andrea J Boyack

Today’s soaring mortgage default rate and the uncertainty and delay associated with mortgage foreclosure proceedings threatens to cause financial tragedies of the commons in condominiums and homeowner associations across the country. Assessment defaults in privately governed communities result in an inequitable allocation of upkeep costs, and current law provides no way to prevent this spillover effect. But the collateral damages caused by delayed foreclosures and insufficient recoveries can be minimized by gradually increasing the priority position of the association lien.

In a majority of states, association liens are completely subordinate to the first mortgage lien. At foreclosure of the mortgage …

Mers: Creating Efficiencies Or Clouding Titles? Examining Challenges To The Mortgage Electronic Registration System, Christian Carson

Christian Carson

The Mortgage Electronic Registration System has recently come under fire amidst the recent foreclosure crisis. Since MERS is mortgagee of record to more than 60 million mortgages in the United States, the question as to whether it has standing to foreclose on defaulted loans presents a hurdle to the speedy recovery of the housing market.

It is likely that the MERS framework is a sound one that complies with longstanding principles of property and agency law. Examination of the controlling Supreme Court case Carpenter v. Longan and Restatement commentary reveals that a separation of the mortgage and the note does …

Dodd-Frank And Basel Iii’S Skin In The Game Divergence And Why It Is Good For The International Banking System, Eric M. Thompson

Eric M Thompson

The recent financial collapse has illuminated many problems with the global financial system. One of these problems was that the financial system developed in a way that allowed banks to profit by simply making more loans instead of quality loans. After the financial collapse, regulators scrambled to enact new legislation to better manage the financial system and avoid the problems that caused the collapse. One way in which regulators attempted to improve the system was to remove the ability of banks to generate limitless loans in which the banks had no stake. Two such pieces of regulation, the Dodd-Frank Wall …

The Global Shadow Bank--Systemic Risk And Tax Policy Objectives: The Uncertain Case Of Foreign Hedge Fund Lending In The United States, Julie A.D. Manasfi

Julie A.D. Manasfi

ABSTRACT: THE GLOBAL SHADOW BANK-- SYSTEMIC RISK AND TAX POLICY OBJECTIVES: THE UNCERTAIN CASE OF FOREIGN HEDGE FUND LENDING IN THE UNITED STATES With the recent financial crisis in the U.S. starting in 2007, much attention has been drawn to the issue of whether and to what extent financial regulation should keep pace with financial innovation and the shadow banking system. However, often ignored is the Internal Revenue Code’s failure to adequately keep pace with this financial innovation. One example of how the tax laws lag behind financial innovation can be found in the taxation of lending into the U.S. …

Reconsidering The Separation Of Banking And Commerce, Mehrsa Baradaran

Mehrsa Baradaran

This Article examines the long-held belief that banking and commerce need to be kept separate in order to ensure a stable banking system. Specifically, the Article criticizes the Bank Holding Company Act (BHCA), which prohibits non-banking entities from owning banks. The recent banking collapse has caused and exacerbated several problematic trends in U.S. banking, especially the conglomeration of banking entities and the homogenization of assets. The inflexible and outdated provisions of the BHCA are a major cause of this movement toward conglomeration and homogenization. Since the enactment of the BHCA, the landscape of U.S. banking has changed dramatically. The strict …

Derivatives: A Twenty-First Century Understanding, Timothy E. Lynch

Timothy E. Lynch

Derivatives are commonly defined as some variation of the following: a financial instrument whose value is derived from the performance of a secondary source such as an underlying bond, commodity or index. But this definition is both over-inclusive and under-inclusive. Thus, not surprisingly, derivatives are largely misunderstood, including by many policy makers, regulators and legal analysts. It is important for interested parties such as policy makers to understand derivatives, because the types and uses of derivatives have exploded in the last few decades, and because these financial instruments can provide both social benefits and cause social harms. This Article presents …

Gambling By Another Name? The Challenge Of Purely Speculative Derivatives, Timothy E. Lynch

Timothy E. Lynch

Derivatives contracts can be used to hedge pre-existing risks, but they can also be used to speculate. This Article focuses on derivatives contracts in which both counterparties are speculators. These “purely speculative derivatives (PSD) contracts” have become increasingly common over the last several years and have notably resulted in the transfer of many tens of billions of dollars from institutions that had invested in the US subprime housing market to a handful of speculators who foresaw the market’s collapse, as well as many billions of dollars in fees to PSD brokers. PSD contracts are problematic. PSD contracts are less-than-zero-sum transactions …

Beyond The Board Of Directors, Kelli A. Alces

Kelli A. Alces

The law of corporate governance places the board of directors at the top of the corporate decisionmaking structure. So, accountability for corporate decisions rests primarily on the shoulders of part-time employees who lack the time and thorough knowledge of the firm necessary to perform the board’s duties effectively. Corporate governance scholarship is similarly preoccupied with the board of directors. Scholars have debated whether to enhance or diminish the board’s authority within the firm, but all accept that a board of directors should preside over corporate decisionmaking. This Article argues that scholars on both sides of the debate have missed the …

Beyond The Board Of Directors, Kelli A. Alces

Kelli A. Alces

The law of corporate governance places the board of directors at the top of the corporate decisionmaking structure. So, accountability for corporate decisions rests primarily on the shoulders of part-time employees who lack the time and thorough knowledge of the firm necessary to perform the board’s duties effectively. Corporate governance scholarship is similarly preoccupied with the board of directors. Scholars have debated whether to enhance or diminish the board’s authority within the firm, but all accept that a board of directors should preside over corporate decisionmaking. This Article argues that scholars on both sides of the debate have missed the …

Private Ordering In Light Of The Law: Achieving Consumer Protection Through Payment Card Security Measures, Edward A. Morse

Edward A. Morse

A private ordering regime has developed within the payment card industry to define appropriate security practices and to monitor compliance by network participants. Market demands for trustworthy systems upon which consumers and merchants could rely provide incentives for security, which are supplemented by privately-designed fines and sanctions imposed through contract by the card brands. Although private ordering has functioned sufficiently well to make payment cards a trusted payment method, the system is not completely secure, as data security breaches have continued to occur. This is not surprising, as complete security is not a feasible goal. Nevertheless, some have questioned whether …

Should Insider Trading In Credit Default Swap Markets Be Regulated? The Landmark Significance Of S.E.C. V. Rorech, Adam H. Reiser

Adam H Reiser

This paper analyzes S.E.C. v. Rorech by examining insider trading in CDS markets. Until the recent passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, CDS markets were left largely unregulated, and consequently provided a welcoming atmosphere for insider trading. While insider trading in securities markets has repeatedly been judicially condemned, some scholars have defended the practice as an effective mechanism to promote market efficiency and productivity. This paper asks whether the insider trading regulations currently imposed on securities markets should be similarly imposed upon CDS markets.

Credit Ratings In Insurance Regulation: The Missing Piece Of Financial Reform, John P. Hunt

John P Hunt

Many commentators, including the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, have identified the poor quality of credit ratings as an important cause of the recent financial crisis. The leading agencies all have acknowledged poor performance in some areas. One popular explanation for agencies’ poor performance is the incorporation of ratings into regulations. Rating-dependent regulation arguably reduces agencies’ incentives to do a good job (by creating artificial demand for ratings) and amplifies the negative effects of their doing a bad job (by creating regulatory consequences for rating downgrades).

Last year’s Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act apparently embraced this explanation wholeheartedly: …

“Globalization Of Islamic Finance: Myth Or Reality?”, Frederick V. Perry

Frederick V. Perry

“ Globalization of Islamic Finance: Myth or Reality?” This paper investigates the question of whether the phenomenon of Islamic finance or Islamic Banking 1 is truly globalizing, that is, spreading as a universal alternative to conventional finance and banking or whether the proponents of such a view are spreading a myth or are themselves simply deluded by their own enthusiasm. The paper addresses various aspects of the globalization of Islamic finance, among others, the issue of the rise of Islamic banking in the West, Islamic jurisprudence and finance, global standards and integration of Islamic finance, and obstacles facing Islamic finance’s …

Islamic Legal Authority In A Non-Muslim Society: Designing The Islamic Credit Union Of Bellevue, Washington, Todd Williams

Todd Williams

This Article examines the current state of Islamic law within a community of Muslims in the United States as it relates to Shari’a-compliant financial products. After briefly reviewing the history of Islamic finance and Islamic authority structures within the United States, I rely on interviews with multiple parties involved in the establishment of one of the first Islamic credit unions in the United States to explore the development of Islamic law within American regulation and cultural mores. I examine the authority structure present among Muslims in the Puget Sound area, and I examine the qualities that define a credible religious …

Islamic Legal Authority In A Non-Muslim Society: Designing The Islamic Credit Union Of Bellevue, Washington, Todd Williams

Todd Williams

This Article examines the current state of Islamic law within a community of Muslims in the United States as it relates to Shari’a-compliant financial products. After briefly reviewing the history of Islamic finance and Islamic authority structures within the United States, I rely on interviews with multiple parties involved in the establishment of one of the first Islamic credit unions in the United States to explore the development of Islamic law within American regulation and cultural mores. I examine the authority structure present among Muslims in the Puget Sound area, and I examine the qualities that define a credible religious …