Law Commons^™

Market Organisations And Institutions In America And England: Valuation In Corporate Bankruptcy, Sarah Paterson

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Courts in England and the United States have traditionally adopted different approaches to the question of valuation in debt restructuring cases. In England, courts have tended to determine whether to approve the allocation of equity in a debt restructuring by reference to the amounts creditors would have received if no debt restructuring had been agreed. The company has typically argued that if no debt restructuring had been agreed either the business or the assets would have been sold. Typically, some evidence of exposure of the business and assets to the market will be submitted to identify the value which would …

Fiduciary Duties Of Directors Of Insolvent Corporations: A Comparative Perspective, Alessandra Zanardo

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Over the last two decades, in many jurisdictions great emphasis has been placed on directors’ fiduciary duties when a corporation is insolvent or in the amorphous “zone of insolvency”; notably, to investigate whether the directors should continue to promote the best interests of the corporation for the benefits of its shareholders, or whether their duties shift to creditors.

The resolution of this ubiquitous issue will help to answer the following questions: Do creditors have standing to pursue claims for breach of fiduciary duties in the insolvency scenario? And, if they do, is it direct or derivative standing?

This Article will …

The Grass Is Not Always Greener: Congressional Dysfunction, Executive Action, And Climate Change In Comparative Perspective, Hari M. Osofsky, Jacqueline Peel

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Partisan climate change politics, paired with a legislative branch that is often deeply divided between two parties, has led to congressional gridlock in the United States. Numerous efforts at passing comprehensive climate change legislation have failed, and little prospect exists for such legislation in the foreseeable future. As a result, executive action under existing federal environmental statutes—often in interaction with litigation—has become the primary mechanism for national-level regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles and power plants.

Although many observers critique this state of affairs and wish for a legislature more able to act, this essay argues that more …

A Tale Of Two Countries' Engagement With The Fair Cross Section Right: Aboriginal Underrepresentation On Ontario Juries And The Boston Marathon Bomber's Jury Wheel Challenge, Marie Comiskey

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In both Canada and the United States, the constitutional right to a jury trial includes the right to select a jury from a representative cross-section of the jury-eligible population. This article compares and contrasts how this right has been interpreted in the two countries through the lens of recent controversies. In Part I, the article examines how the Supreme Court of Canada and the United States Supreme Court have defined the representative cross-section component of the right to a jury trial in the two respective countries. In Part II, the article focuses on the crisis of Aboriginal underrepresentation on coroner …

Preventing Juror Misconduct In A Digital World, Thaddeus Hoffmeister

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article examines the reform efforts employed by common law countries to address internet-related juror misconduct, which generally arises when jurors use technology to improperly research or discuss a case. The three specific areas of reform are (1) punishment, (2) oversight, and (3) education. The first measure can take various forms ranging from fines to public embarrassment to incarceration. The common theme with all punishments is that once imposed, they make citizens less inclined to want to serve as jurors. Therefore, penalties should be a last resort in preventing juror misconduct.

The second reform measure is oversight, which occurs in …

A Comparative Law Analysis Of Private Securities Litigation In The Wake Of Morrison V. National Australia Bank, Grant Swanson

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article examines the recent Supreme Court decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank and its broad implications for private securities litigants going forward. Morrison overturned forty years of jurisprudence when it rejected the conduct and effects tests used in some form by every Circuit Court when determining the extraterritorial reach of Section 10(b) of the Securities Act. The Court instead adopted a transactional test requiring that the security be traded in the United States or otherwise domestic, substantially cutting back the reach of Section 10(b). As a result, many securities litigants will be forced to bring claims in the …

Glass Cages In The Dock?: Presenting The Defendant To The Jury, David Tait

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The architecture of the courtroom provides insights into the philosophy of justice espoused by the community—it embodies particular perspectives about the presumption of innocence, the dignity of the person, the right to effective representation, and more generally, the right to a fair trial. The physical position of the accused in a criminal trial, the subject of this Article, varies considerably between jurisdictions, from a privileged place at the defense table to a dock isolated from other courtroom participants. The legal issues associated with the place of the accused are particularly evident when the dock is enclosed in glass. This Article …

Should Criminal Juries Give Reasons For Their Verdicts?: The Spanish Experience And The Implications Of The European Court Of Human Rights Decision In Taxquet V. Belgium, Stephen C. Thaman

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article uses the European Court of Human Rights judgment of Taxquet v. Belgium, decided by the Grand Chamber in 2010, which held that in some cases the trial jury's failure to give reasons for its verdict of guilt could constitute a violation of the right to a fair trial under Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights, as a springboard for discussing whether or not criminal trial juries in Europe and the United States should be more accountable for their verdicts. The article explains the special jury verdicts traditionally used in Europe and the new Spanish requirement …

Shielding Children: The European Way, Michael D. Birnhack, Jacob H. Rowbottom

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The Internet crosses physical borders, and carries with it both its promises and its harms to many different countries and societies. These countries thus share the same technology, but they do not necessarily share the same set of values or legal system. This Article compares the legal response in the United States and in Europe to one important issue: the exposure of children to certain materials, which are deemed harmful to them but not harmful to adults.

This US-European comparison, in which the experience in the United Kingdom serves as a leading example, illustrates the traits of various kinds of …