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Articles 1 - 30 of 33
Full-Text Articles in Law
Addressing Gaps In The Dodd-Frank Act: Directors' Risk Management Oversight Obligations, Kristin N. Johnson
Addressing Gaps In The Dodd-Frank Act: Directors' Risk Management Oversight Obligations, Kristin N. Johnson
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In the years leading to the recent financial crisis, finance theorists introduced innovative methods, including quantitative financial models and derivative instruments, to measure and mitigate risk exposure. During the financial crisis, financial institutions facing insolvency revealed pervasive misunderstandings, misapplications, and mistaken assumptions regarding these complex risk management methods. As losses in financial markets escalated and caused liquidity and solvency crises, commentators sharply criticized directors and executives at large financial institutions for their risk management decisions. By adopting the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Congress directly and indirectly addresses certain risk management oversight concerns at large, complex financial …
"Patient Capital": Can Delaware Corporate Law Help Revive It?, Jack B. Jacobs
"Patient Capital": Can Delaware Corporate Law Help Revive It?, Jack B. Jacobs
Washington and Lee Law Review
No abstract provided.
In The Shadow Of Soft Law: The Handling Of Corporate Social Responsibility Disputes Under The Oecd Guidelines For Multinational Enterprises, Leyla Davarnejad
In The Shadow Of Soft Law: The Handling Of Corporate Social Responsibility Disputes Under The Oecd Guidelines For Multinational Enterprises, Leyla Davarnejad
Journal of Dispute Resolution
This socio-legal study undertakes a comprehensive analysis of the various practices NCPs apply to solve CSR disputes during specific instances. It does so in four parts, starting with an outline of the legal background of the CSR debate and movement in Part II. Part Ill examines the construction and content of the Guidelines. Also, Part III explores the soft law nature debate and how it shapes the NCPs' commitment and implementation of the Guidelines. In Part IV, the empirical findings of this study are presented to illuminate how the soft law nature of the Guidelines shapes the NCPs' commitment and …
The Second Circuit Correctly Interprets The Alien Tort Statute: Kiobel V. Royal Dutch, Frank Cruz-Alvarez, Laura E. Wade
The Second Circuit Correctly Interprets The Alien Tort Statute: Kiobel V. Royal Dutch, Frank Cruz-Alvarez, Laura E. Wade
University of Miami Law Review
No abstract provided.
The Future Of Socialism, Robert Paul Wolff
The Future Of Socialism, Robert Paul Wolff
Seattle University Law Review
An unpromising title, this, in the seventh year of the third millennium of the Common Era; rather like “Recent Developments in Ptolemaic Astronomy” or “Betamax—a Technology Whose Time Has Come.” My grandfather’s dream, the faith of my younger days, has turned to ashes. And yet, I remain persuaded that Karl Marx has something important to teach us about the world in which we live today. In what follows, I propose to take as my text a famous statement from Marx’s A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy1—a sort of preliminary sketch of Das Kapital2—and see what it can tell …
Hired To Invent Vs. Work Made For Hire: Resolving The Inconsistency Among Rights Of Corporate Personhood, Authorship, And Inventorship, Sean M. O'Connor
Hired To Invent Vs. Work Made For Hire: Resolving The Inconsistency Among Rights Of Corporate Personhood, Authorship, And Inventorship, Sean M. O'Connor
Seattle University Law Review
Corporations have long held core aspects of legal personhood, such as rights to own and divest property and to sue and be sued. U.S. copyright law allows corporations to be authors while U.S. patent law does not allow them to be inventors. To be sure, both copyright law and patent law allow corporations to own copyrights and patents as assignees. But only copyright law, through its work-made-for-hire doctrine, provides for the nonnatural person of the corporation to “be” the author in an almost metaphysical sense. Under patent law, the natural-person inventors must always be listed in the patent documents, even …
The Post-Revolutionary Period In Corporate Law: Returning To The Theory Of The Firm, Matthew T. Bodie
The Post-Revolutionary Period In Corporate Law: Returning To The Theory Of The Firm, Matthew T. Bodie
Seattle University Law Review
The consensus on corporate law theory has narrowed the field’s doctrinal and methodological foci. Although the vibrancy of shareholder primacy has at times been called into question as a matter of law, both boardrooms and courts have taken the normative call for shareholder wealth maximization increasingly to heart. There is little doubt that the revolution has not only substantially affected legal theory but also legislation, court decisions, and corporate behavior. It achieved a level of success unusual for an academic discipline; it not only transformed the field but also the world. We now find ourselves in the post-revolutionary period. For …
Salomon Redux: The Moralities Of Business, Allan C. Hutchinson, Ian Langlois
Salomon Redux: The Moralities Of Business, Allan C. Hutchinson, Ian Langlois
Seattle University Law Review
In this Essay, we revisit the Salomon case and its related litigation not only from a legal standpoint but also from a broader moral perspective. 4 In the second Part, we offer a detailed context for and account of the Salomon litigation. The third Part focuses on the historical roots of the corporation and the judicial arguments in Salomon. In the fourth Part, we explore the moral and legal consequences of the Salomon decision. Throughout the Essay, our ambition will be not only to give the Salomon case a more contextual and richer spin but also to tackle the relationship …
The Citizen Shareholder: Modernizing The Agency Paradigm To Reflect How And Why A Majority Of Americans Invest In The Market, Anne Tucker
Seattle University Law Review
This Article examines corporate law from the perspective of personal investment and discusses the economic realities of modern investments in order to understand the role of shareholders within the agency paradigm. Corporate law, its scholars, and suggested reforms traditionally focus on the internal organization of the corporation. For example, agency principles inform corporate law by acknowledging a potential conflict of interest between the managers and shareholders of a corporation. Reforms such as increased shareholder voting rights and proxy access, which seek to give shareholders a more direct means to make their interests known to managers, illustrate corporate law’s focus on …
A Shallow Harbor And A Cold Horizon: The Deceptive Promise Of Modern Agency Law For The Theory Of The Firm, David A. Westbrook
A Shallow Harbor And A Cold Horizon: The Deceptive Promise Of Modern Agency Law For The Theory Of The Firm, David A. Westbrook
Seattle University Law Review
Modern agency law—the consensual agreement of one person to work for and under the control of another—has been widely used to provide a general framework for understanding a great deal of business law. Agency law concepts can be used to frame pedagogical, scholarly, institutional, and even political discourses. In so doing, modern agency law addresses concerns about the institution of the corporation, generally by reference to contract: institutions are created out of essentially consensual, and hence justifiable, relationships among autonomous individuals. So modern agency law is more than a “theory” of the firm in the narrow sense of theory; modern …
Consumer Lock-In And The Theory Of The Firm, David G. Yosifon
Consumer Lock-In And The Theory Of The Firm, David G. Yosifon
Seattle University Law Review
The advent of the modern corporation separated not only ownership from control but also production from consumption. The agency problem that arose between owners and managers of firms also emerged between producers and consumers. Just as corporations needed to lock-in capital to sustain large-scale operations, so too did they need to lock-in consumers to justify and reduce the risks of asset-specific investment. Large corporate operations succeeded because they solved both the capital and consumer lock-in challenges. This Article explores ways in which modern consumers, like shareholders, can find themselves in a very real sense locked into the corporations with which …
We Don’T Need You Anymore: Corporate Social Responsibilities, Executive Class Interests, And Solving Mizruchi And Hirschman’S Paradox, Richard Marens
We Don’T Need You Anymore: Corporate Social Responsibilities, Executive Class Interests, And Solving Mizruchi And Hirschman’S Paradox, Richard Marens
Seattle University Law Review
Previously, Northern Italian, Dutch, and then English entrepreneurs had dominated global trade in turn, and when after a century or so their respective hegemonies began to show cracks, each group refocused its efforts in the service of tapping already-accumulated wealth through financial speculation and, in the process, also financed the rise of their successors.20 If Dahrendorf was correct, and American capital was managed during the era of American industrial dominance by “a class of career bureaucrats, whose primary loyalty lay with their employer rather than with a class of property owners,”21 there are good reasons to believe that that has …
The Evolution Of The American Corporation And Global Organizational Biodiversity, Ugo Pagano
The Evolution Of The American Corporation And Global Organizational Biodiversity, Ugo Pagano
Seattle University Law Review
The Evolution of the Modern Corporate Structure has been one of the most influential chapters of The Modern Corporation & Private Property. But Berle and Means’s superb analysis is framed in the American context and cannot be easily generalized to other experiences. Their corporate model arose in a democratic country where “production engineers” commanded more respect than financiers and capitalist dynasties. Other countries followed different organizational paths, characterized by different institutional complementarities between labor and financial markets that generated “concentrated equilibria” different from the American “dispersed equilibrium.” This Article argues that the divide can be traced to the different aristocratic …
Theories Of The Firm And Judicial Uncertainty, Andrew S. Gold
Theories Of The Firm And Judicial Uncertainty, Andrew S. Gold
Seattle University Law Review
There is no necessary connection between academics’ theories of the firm and judicial theories of the firm. Economists and legal scholars may adopt one theory of the firm, and courts may adopt another. We might even predict this result. Judges are not economists, and as increasingly sophisticated theories of the firm emerge in the academic literature, judges are not well-positioned to keep pace with the evolving accounts. Indeed, judges may reasonably choose to adopt no theory at all. Given these premises, this Essay explores the relationship between academically developed theories of the firm and corporate legal doctrine. Legal scholars who …
Nevada And The Market For Corporate Law, Bruce H. Kobayashi, Larry E. Ribstein
Nevada And The Market For Corporate Law, Bruce H. Kobayashi, Larry E. Ribstein
Seattle University Law Review
Berle and Means’s view that managers rather than shareholders control our largest corporations finds important expression in William Cary’s famous article arguing that managers have led shareholders on a “race to the bottom” whose finish line is Delaware. These views, in turn, support supplanting state corporation law with federal regulation of corporate governance. Concerns about a race to the bottom lately focus on Nevada, which seeks to be Delaware’s first real competitor for out-of-state firms in the national incorporation market. Evidence suggests that Nevada’s strategy is to raise tax revenues by offering a significantly laxer corporate law than Delaware. We …
Strengthening Investment In Public Corporations Through The Uncorporation, Kelli A. Alces
Strengthening Investment In Public Corporations Through The Uncorporation, Kelli A. Alces
Seattle University Law Review
We cannot completely overcome the difficulties caused by the separation of ownership and control. In The Modern Corporation and Private Property, Adolf A. Berle and Gardiner Means focused our attention on what was then a relatively new phenomenon: widely dispersed public shareholding.1 They marveled at how, for the first time in the history of the American economy, the owners of assets had so little to do with the management of those assets, and managers had so much power over so much health that did not belong to them.2 Berle and Means described what we now call the Berle−Means corporation, the …
Mind Control: Firms And The Production Of Ideas, Anthony J. Casey
Mind Control: Firms And The Production Of Ideas, Anthony J. Casey
Seattle University Law Review
The central questions for economic theories of the firm concern how the production of a good is organized (in the market or within a firm) and why that organization prevails. Derivative to these questions, legal scholars ask how the law affects and is affected by any particular organizational structure. Emerging literature looks at these questions in connection with the law of intellectual property. The prevailing theories in that literature focus primarily, though not exclusively, on patent law and generally adopt a property-rights theory of the firm. Those theories, focusing on residual control and hold-up problems, have shown that as patent …
Coase, Knight, And The Nexus-Of-Contracts Theory Of The Firm: A Reflection On Reification, Reality, And The Corporation As Entrepreneur Surrogate, Charles R.T. O'Kelley
Coase, Knight, And The Nexus-Of-Contracts Theory Of The Firm: A Reflection On Reification, Reality, And The Corporation As Entrepreneur Surrogate, Charles R.T. O'Kelley
Seattle University Law Review
Working within the nexus-of-contracts model, scholars have struggled to develop a rhetorical paradigm that accurately predicts or describes corporation law. This difficulty flows from twin flaws in the currently dominant model—the equation of the corporation and the firm and the exclusion of the entrepreneur. Coase and his progenitor, Frank Knight, saw the firm as having an “inside” and an “outside” and a distinct central actor—the entrepreneur. Contrary to the allocation of resources by the unconscious processes of the market fundamental to the perfect competition model favored by free-market, nexus-of-contracts theorists, Knight and Coase looked inside the firm and identified the …
Order For The Courts: Reforming The Nollan/Dolan Threshold Inquiry For Exactions, Winfield B. Martin
Order For The Courts: Reforming The Nollan/Dolan Threshold Inquiry For Exactions, Winfield B. Martin
Seattle University Law Review
For decades prior to 2005, Fifth Amendment regulatory takings jurisprudence languished in a state of confused neglect. Rather than articulating a clearly discernable standard for determining whether a violation of the Takings Clause had occurred, Justices rebuffed government action that seemed to amount to “an out-and-out plan of extortion” and nodded in approval when they deemed the government to have “acted diligently and in good faith” or in furtherance of a “compelling interest.” In trying to parse this imprecise thicket, scholars have characterized the Court’s approach to regulatory takings as a “muddle,” in “disarray,” and “incoherent.” Professor Kent even noted …
Law And Legal Theory In The History Of Corporate Responsibility: Corporate Personhood, Lyman Johnson
Law And Legal Theory In The History Of Corporate Responsibility: Corporate Personhood, Lyman Johnson
Seattle University Law Review
This Article, the first of a multipart project, addresses the nature of corporate personhood, one area where law has played a central role in the history of corporate responsibility in the United States.1 The treatment will be illustrative, not exhaustive. Consistent with the theme of the larger project, the Article serves to make the simple but important point that a full historical understanding of corporate responsibility requires an appreciation of the law’s significant, if ultimately limited, contribution to the longstanding American quest for more responsible corporate conduct. On one hand, the spheres of law and corporate responsibility, although clearly complementary, …
Rethinking The Nature Of The Firm: The Corporation As A Governance Object, Peer Zumbansen
Rethinking The Nature Of The Firm: The Corporation As A Governance Object, Peer Zumbansen
Seattle University Law Review
This Article attempts to bridge two discourses—corporate governance and contract governance. Regarding the latter, a group of scholars has recently set out to develop a more comprehensive research agenda to explore the governance dimensions of contractual relations, highlighting the potential of contract theory to develop a more encompassing theory of social and economic transactions. While a renewed interest in the contribution of economic theory for a concept of contract governance drives one dimension of this research, another part of this undertaking has been to move contract theory closer to theories of social organization. Here, these scholars emphasize the “social” or …
How Elevation Of Corporate Free Speech Rights Affects Legality Of Network Neutrality, Barbara A. Cherry
How Elevation Of Corporate Free Speech Rights Affects Legality Of Network Neutrality, Barbara A. Cherry
Federal Communications Law Journal
In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), the U.S. Supreme Court overruled a century of precedent to hold that corporations must be treated identically to natural persons with regard to political speech. This Article describes how the Court's decision is a radical departure from history that mirrors the FCC's flawed analysis in its classification of broadband Internet access services as an information service with no separable telecommunications component subject to common carriage regulation. Overall, the combinatorial effect of Citizens United and the FCC's classification of broadband access service as an information service is to elevate the constitutional free speech …
At The Intersection Of Corporate Governance And Environmental Sustainability, Jayne W. Barnard
At The Intersection Of Corporate Governance And Environmental Sustainability, Jayne W. Barnard
William & Mary Business Law Review
Most boards of public companies have learned to live comfortably with audit committees, nominating committees, and compensation committees. An increasing number of companies are now also creating risk-management committees. This Essay explores the early stages of development of yet another board-level committee: the sustainability committee. The Essay posits several advantages to having a board-level sustainability committee and identifies possible sources of pressure for the creation of more such committees. It also suggests some of the disadvantages of sustainability committees and cautions against cosmetic governance reform. By examining what we know today (and can imagine tomorrow) about sustainability committees, this Essay …
The Uncorporation And The Unraveling Of 'Nexus Of Contracts' Theory, Grant M. Hayden, Matthew T. Bodie
The Uncorporation And The Unraveling Of 'Nexus Of Contracts' Theory, Grant M. Hayden, Matthew T. Bodie
Michigan Law Review
A corporation is not a contract. It is a state-created entity. It has legal personhood with the right to form contracts, suffer liability for torts, and (as the Supreme Court recently decided) make campaign contributions. However, many corporate law scholars have remained wedded to the conception-metaphor, model, paradigm, what have you-of the corporation as a contract or "nexus" of contracts. The nexus of contracts theory is meant to point up the voluntary, market-oriented nature of the firm and to dismiss the notion that the corporation owes anything to the state. It is also used as a justification for preserving the …
A Test Case In International Bankruptcy Protocols: The Lehman Brothers Insolvency, Jamie Altman
A Test Case In International Bankruptcy Protocols: The Lehman Brothers Insolvency, Jamie Altman
San Diego International Law Journal
Part II of this Article, explains the competing theories underlying bankruptcy systems: universalism and territorialism. Part III details various statutory solutions to international bankruptcy problems. Next, Part IV analyzes the provisions of the Lehman Protocol in depth. Part V then examines the precedent upon which the Lehman Protocol relies. Part VI assesses potential threats to the Protocol?s success. This leads to Part VII, which contains suggestions for future protocols. Finally, Part VIII concludes.
Virginia Is For Lovers And Directors: Important Differences Between Fiduciary Duties In Virginia And Delaware, Laurence V. Parker Jr.
Virginia Is For Lovers And Directors: Important Differences Between Fiduciary Duties In Virginia And Delaware, Laurence V. Parker Jr.
William & Mary Business Law Review
Virginia and Delaware have different approaches to a director’s fiduciary duties. The Virginia Stock Corporation Act imposes a deferential subjective standard of conduct that allows the more-frequent application of its business judgment rule. Virginia courts have followed the Virginia Stock Corporation Act and have shown even more deference to the decisions of directors than the Virginia Stock Corporation Act may require. In addition, Virginia courts have been reluctant to hold that additional constituencies, beyond the corporation and shareholders as a class, are owed fiduciary duties. Finally, Virginia courts have not imposed “enhanced scrutiny” on the decisions of directors involving hostile …
The Federal Common Law Of Vicarious Fiduciary Liability Under Erisa, Colleen E. Medill
The Federal Common Law Of Vicarious Fiduciary Liability Under Erisa, Colleen E. Medill
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA"), the federal law that regulates employer-sponsored benefit plans, has a rich history of judiciallycreated federal common law. This Article explores the theoretical, policy, statutory, and stare decisis grounds for the development of another area offederal common law under ERISA-the incorporation of respondeat superior liability principles to impose ERISA fiduciary liability ("vicarious fiduciary liability") upon a corporation for the fiduciary activities of its employees or agents. The Article proposes that the federal courts should adopt a federal common law rule of vicarious fiduciary liability under ERISA based on the traditional scope of …
The Fading Bright Line Of Physical Presence: Did Kfc Corporation V. Iowa Department Of Revenue Give States The Secret Recipe For Repudiating Quill?, Adam B. Thimmesch
The Fading Bright Line Of Physical Presence: Did Kfc Corporation V. Iowa Department Of Revenue Give States The Secret Recipe For Repudiating Quill?, Adam B. Thimmesch
Kentucky Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Corporations, Corruption, And Complexity: Campaign Finance After Citizens United, Richard Briffault
Corporations, Corruption, And Complexity: Campaign Finance After Citizens United, Richard Briffault
Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy
No abstract provided.
Don't Blame Me, Blame The Financial Crisis: A Survey Of Dismissal Rulings In 10b-5 Suits For Subprime Securities Losses, Christopher J. Miller
Don't Blame Me, Blame The Financial Crisis: A Survey Of Dismissal Rulings In 10b-5 Suits For Subprime Securities Losses, Christopher J. Miller
Fordham Law Review
This Note surveys thirty-four district court decisions on motions to dismiss in actions brought under SEC Rule 10b-5 for losses suffered during the recent financial crisis. This Note focuses on issues of scienter and loss causation, the elements of a 10b-5 claim most likely to be affected by a market-wide downturn. In the opinions surveyed, successfully pleading scienter proved the biggest hurdle for plaintiffs in surviving a motion to dismiss, and this Note proceeds to analyze the factors that influenced whether a district court found scienter to be adequately pleaded. This Note also examines efforts by both plaintiffs and defendants …