Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- Torts (9)
- Law and Economics (7)
- Tax Law (4)
- Bankruptcy Law (3)
- Securities Law (3)
-
- Contracts (2)
- Economics (2)
- Organizations Law (2)
- Social and Behavioral Sciences (2)
- Arts and Humanities (1)
- Banking and Finance Law (1)
- Civil Procedure (1)
- Civil Rights and Discrimination (1)
- Commercial Law (1)
- Constitutional Law (1)
- Courts (1)
- Economic History (1)
- Economic Theory (1)
- Estates and Trusts (1)
- First Amendment (1)
- History (1)
- Human Rights Law (1)
- Intellectual History (1)
- Law and Society (1)
- Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility (1)
- Legal History (1)
- Legal Profession (1)
- Litigation (1)
- Institution
-
- Selected Works (6)
- University of Michigan Law School (6)
- Columbia Law School (4)
- Vanderbilt University Law School (3)
- BLR (2)
-
- Cornell University Law School (2)
- Mitchell Hamline School of Law (2)
- University of Kentucky (2)
- University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law (2)
- University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (2)
- American University Washington College of Law (1)
- Duke Law (1)
- Florida A&M University College of Law (1)
- Fordham Law School (1)
- SelectedWorks (1)
- The University of Akron (1)
- University of Cincinnati College of Law (1)
- University of Florida Levin College of Law (1)
- University of Georgia School of Law (1)
- University of Oklahoma College of Law (1)
- University of Richmond (1)
- Washington and Lee University School of Law (1)
- William & Mary Law School (1)
- Publication Year
- Publication
-
- Faculty Scholarship (8)
- Michigan Law Review (5)
- Robert Rhee (3)
- Vanderbilt Law Review (3)
- All Faculty Scholarship (2)
-
- Cornell Law Faculty Publications (2)
- ExpressO (2)
- William Mitchell Law Review (2)
- Akron Law Review (1)
- American University Law Review (1)
- Amy J. Sepinwall (1)
- Arthur Acevedo (1)
- Articles (1)
- Faculty Articles and Other Publications (1)
- Faculty Publications (1)
- Florida A & M University Law Review (1)
- John A. Siliciano (1)
- Kentucky Law Journal (1)
- Law Faculty Scholarly Articles (1)
- Oklahoma Law Review (1)
- Scholarly Works (1)
- Thomas K. Cheng (1)
- UF Law Faculty Publications (1)
- University of Richmond Law Review (1)
- Washington and Lee Law Review (1)
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 30 of 44
Full-Text Articles in Business Organizations Law
Corporate Governance Reform And The Sustainability Imperative, Christopher Bruner
Corporate Governance Reform And The Sustainability Imperative, Christopher Bruner
Scholarly Works
Recent years have witnessed a significant upsurge of interest in alternatives to shareholder-centric corporate governance, driven by a growing sustainability imperative—widespread recognition that business as usual, despite the short-term returns generated, could undermine social and economic stability and even threaten our long-term survival if we fail to grapple with associated costs. We remain poorly positioned to assess corporate governance reform options, however, because prevailing theoretical lenses effectively cabin the terms of the debate in ways that obscure many of the most consequential possibilities. According to prevailing frameworks, our options essentially amount to board-versus-shareholder power, and shareholder-versus stakeholder purpose. This narrow …
Anonymous Companies, William J. Moon
Anonymous Companies, William J. Moon
Faculty Scholarship
Hardly a day goes by without hearing about nefarious activities facilitated by anonymous “shell” companies. Often described as menaces to the financial system, the creation of business entities with no real operations in sun-drenched offshore jurisdictions offering “zero percent” tax rates remains in vogue among business titans, pop stars, multimillionaires, and royals. The trending headlines and academic accounts, however, have paid insufficient attention to the legal uses of anonymous companies that are both ubiquitous and almost infinite in their variations.
This Article identifies privacy as a functional feature of modern business entities by documenting the hidden virtues of anonymous companies—business …
Limited Liability Partnerships: An (Overlooked) Hole In The Shield, Lin (Lynn) Bai, Sarah Harden
Limited Liability Partnerships: An (Overlooked) Hole In The Shield, Lin (Lynn) Bai, Sarah Harden
Faculty Articles and Other Publications
There is a split of judicial authority on whether limited liability applies when the creditor is a partner of a limited liability partnership. The New York Court of Appeals narrowly interpreted the partnership statute and denied the applicability, but the California Court of Appeals upheld it. The difference has been overlooked by the legal and business communities. This paper shows that the narrow interpretation is inconsistent with the legislative intent, laden with procedural obstacles in enforcement, and inharmonious with settled legal doctrines and tenets of law-making.
Contested Visions: The Value Of Systems Theory For Corporate Law, Tamara Belinfanti, Lynn A. Stout
Contested Visions: The Value Of Systems Theory For Corporate Law, Tamara Belinfanti, Lynn A. Stout
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
Despite the dominant role corporations play in our economy, culture, and politics, the nature and purpose of corporations remains hotly contested. This conflict was brought to the fore in the recent Supreme Court opinions in Citizens United and Hobby Lobby. Although the prevailing narrative for the past quarter-century has been that corporations “belong” to shareholders and should pursue “shareholder value,” support for this approach, which has been justified as essential for managerial accountability, is eroding. It persists today primarily in the form of the argument that corporations should seek “long-term” shareholder value. Yet, as this Article shows, when shareholder value …
"Trade Or Business": The Relevance Of A Deceptively Simple Income Tax Phrase To The Labor Code, Federal Statutes, And Private Equity Activity, Arthur Acevedo
"Trade Or Business": The Relevance Of A Deceptively Simple Income Tax Phrase To The Labor Code, Federal Statutes, And Private Equity Activity, Arthur Acevedo
Arthur Acevedo
Corporate law is premised upon two fundamental principles: the pooling of moneys for investment purposes and the privilege of limited liability. The pooling of money enables promoters and investors to efficiently amass and organize substantial sums for investment purposes. The privilege of limited liability assures investors that personal liability for the underlying invested activity is limited to the moneys invested. Limited liability is a sacrosanct principle and a quintessential investment assumption within the investment community. Private equity firms have successfully exploited these two policies. However, a decision by the First Circuit Court of Appeal casts a shadow of doubt on …
Bond Limited Liability, Robert J. Rhee
Bond Limited Liability, Robert J. Rhee
Robert Rhee
Limited liability is considered a “birthright” of corporations. The concept is entrenched in legal theory, and it is a fixed reality of the political economy. But it remains controversial. Scholarly debate has been engaged in absolute terms of defending the rule or advocating its abrogation. Though compelling, these polar positions, often expressed in abstract arguments, are associated with disquieting effects. Without limited liability, efficiency may be severely compromised. With it, involuntary tort creditors bear some of the cost of an enterprise. Most other proposals for reforming limited liability have been incremental, such as modifying veil piercing. However, neither absolutism nor …
"Trade Or Business": The Relevance Of A Deceptively Simple Income Tax Phrase To The Labor Code, Federal Statutes, And Private Equity Activity, Arthur Acevedo
"Trade Or Business": The Relevance Of A Deceptively Simple Income Tax Phrase To The Labor Code, Federal Statutes, And Private Equity Activity, Arthur Acevedo
Florida A & M University Law Review
Corporate law is premised upon two fundamental principles: the pooling of moneys for investment purposes and the privilege of limited liability. The pooling of money enables promoters and investors to efficiently amass and organize substantial sums for investment purposes. The privilege of limited liability assures investors that personal liability for the underlying invested activity is limited to the moneys invested. Limited liability is a sacrosanct principle and a quintessential investment assumption within the investment community. Private equity firms have successfully exploited these two policies. However, a decision by the First Circuit Court of Appeal casts a shadow of doubt on …
Rethinking Limited Liability Of Parent Corporations For Foreign Subsidiaries’ Violations Of International Human Rights Law, Gwynne Skinner
Rethinking Limited Liability Of Parent Corporations For Foreign Subsidiaries’ Violations Of International Human Rights Law, Gwynne Skinner
Washington and Lee Law Review
The doctrine of limited liability of shareholders often prevents victims harmed by a corporation’s foreign subsidiary’s violation of international human rights norms from obtaining a remedy when that subsidiary operates in a country that has a weak or ineffective judicial system. This is because victims are often unable to obtain a remedy in these countries, and the doctrine almost always prevents victims from seeking a remedy from the parent corporation. Given this problem, in what situations should parent corporations be liable for the tortious activities of their foreign subsidiaries? This Article discusses the circumstances where imposing liability on parent corporations …
Looking Back And Looking Forward: Sarbanes-Oxley And The Future Of Corporate Governance, Scott Harshbarger, Goutam U. Jois
Looking Back And Looking Forward: Sarbanes-Oxley And The Future Of Corporate Governance, Scott Harshbarger, Goutam U. Jois
Akron Law Review
In this Article, we argue that all groups: business leaders, regulators and shareholders, should recognize the steps that must be taken to create a competitive, fair and ethical corporate climate. We are not calling merely for “voluntary cooperation” from businesses to improve the current situation. Indeed, SOX exists and is appropriate for this situation precisely because it imposes baseline obligations with which corporations are required to comply. Moreover, other regulations regarding independent directors, expensing of stock options, etc. are needed and are vital to keeping business interests in line with society’s. However, business leaders and regulators will have an easier …
Corporate Behavior And The Social Efficiency Of Tort Law, John A. Siliciano
Corporate Behavior And The Social Efficiency Of Tort Law, John A. Siliciano
John A. Siliciano
No abstract provided.
Corporate Piety And Impropriety: Hobby Lobby's Extension Of Rfra Rights To For-Profit Corporations, Amy Sepinwall
Corporate Piety And Impropriety: Hobby Lobby's Extension Of Rfra Rights To For-Profit Corporations, Amy Sepinwall
Amy J. Sepinwall
In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the Supreme Court held, for the first time, that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) applied to for-profit corporations and, on that basis, it allowed Hobby Lobby to omit otherwise mandated contraceptive coverage from its employee healthcare package. Critics argue that the Court’s novel expansion of corporate rights is fundamentally inconsistent with the basic principles of corporate law. In particular, they contend that the decision ignores the fact that the corporation, as an artificial entity, cannot exercise religion in its own right, and they decry the notion that the law might look through the corporate …
An Economic Analysis Of Limited Shareholder Liability In Contractual Claims, Thomas K. Cheng
An Economic Analysis Of Limited Shareholder Liability In Contractual Claims, Thomas K. Cheng
Thomas K. Cheng
This Article evaluates the economic basis for limited liability in contractual claims and proposes the introduction of unlimited liability for such claims against closely held corporations. It argues that the existing justifications for limited liability are unconvincing, and that unlimited liability is an economically more efficient rule for these corporations in light of savings in monitoring costs and more efficient allocation of risks. It rejects the frequently made argument that limited liability is justified in contractual claims because the contractual counterparty had a prior opportunity to negotiate for modifications. This argument demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the …
The Governance Structure Of Shadow Banking: Rethinking Assumptions About Limited Liability, Steven L. Schwarcz
The Governance Structure Of Shadow Banking: Rethinking Assumptions About Limited Liability, Steven L. Schwarcz
Faculty Scholarship
In an earlier article, I argued that shadow banking — the provision of financial services and products outside of the traditional banking system, and thus without the need for bank intermediation between capital markets and the users of funds — is so radically transforming finance that regulatory scholars need to rethink their basic assumptions. This article attempts to rethink the corporate governance assumption that owners of firms should always have their liability limited to the capital they have invested. In the relatively small and decentralized firms that dominate shadow banking, equity investors tend to be active managers. Limited liability gives …
Bond Limited Liability, Robert J. Rhee
Bond Limited Liability, Robert J. Rhee
UF Law Faculty Publications
Limited liability is considered a “birthright” of corporations. The concept is entrenched in legal theory, and it is a fixed reality of the political economy. But it remains controversial. Scholarly debate has been engaged in absolute terms of defending the rule or advocating its abrogation. Though compelling, these polar positions, often expressed in abstract arguments, are associated with disquieting effects. Without limited liability, efficiency may be severely compromised. With it, involuntary tort creditors bear some of the cost of an enterprise. Most other proposals for reforming limited liability have been incremental, such as modifying veil piercing. However, neither absolutism nor …
The Curious Case Of Directors' And Officers' Liability For Supervision And Management: Exploring The Intersection Of Corporate And Tort Law, Martin Petrin
American University Law Review
No abstract provided.
Bonding Limited Liability, Robert J. Rhee
Bonding Limited Liability, Robert J. Rhee
Faculty Scholarship
Limited liability is considered a “birthright” of corporations. The concept is entrenched in legal theory, and it is a fixed reality of the political economy. But it remains controversial. Scholarly debate has been engaged in absolute terms of defending the rule or advocating its abrogation. Though compelling, these polar positions, often expressed in abstract arguments, are associated with disquieting effects. Without limited liability, efficiency may be severely compromised. With it, involuntary tort creditors bear some of the cost of an enterprise. Most other proposals for reforming limited liability have been incremental, such as modifying veil piercing. However, neither absolutism nor …
Disputing Limited Liability, Christina L. Boyd, David A. Hoffman
Disputing Limited Liability, Christina L. Boyd, David A. Hoffman
All Faculty Scholarship
This project presents six years of hand-collected federal district court data to analyze the first representative sample of veil piercing litigation. Our method identifies veil piercing complaints through Westlaw's trial pleadings database and codes each case through a detailed examination of PACER records. We test a variety of hypotheses to understand how such litigations are resolved. We find that plaintiffs succeed quite often in veil piercing litigation, if success is defined as winning on motions that do not terminate a case. A variety of legal and extra-legal factors predict such interstitial veil piercing successes. Voluntary creditor causes of action promote …
Bonding Limited Liability, Robert J. Rhee
Bonding Limited Liability, Robert J. Rhee
Robert Rhee
Limited liability is considered a “birthright” of corporations. The concept is entrenched in legal theory, and it is a fixed reality of the political economy. But it remains controversial. Scholarly debate has been engaged in absolute terms of defending the rule or advocating its abrogation. Though compelling, these polar positions, often expressed in abstract arguments, are associated with disquieting effects. Without limited liability, efficiency may be severely compromised. With it, involuntary tort creditors bear some of the cost of an enterprise. Most other proposals for reforming limited liability have been incremental, such as modifying veil piercing. However, neither absolutism nor …
Bonding Limited Liability, Robert J. Rhee
Bonding Limited Liability, Robert J. Rhee
Robert Rhee
Limited liability is considered a “birthright” of corporations. The concept is entrenched in legal theory, and it is a fixed reality of the political economy. But it remains controversial. Scholarly debate has been engaged in absolute terms of defending the rule or advocating its abrogation. Though compelling, these polar positions, often expressed in abstract arguments, are associated with disquieting effects. Without limited liability, efficiency may be severely compromised. With it, involuntary tort creditors bear some of the cost of an enterprise. Most other proposals for reforming limited liability have been incremental, such as modifying veil piercing. However, neither absolutism nor …
Reconciling Shareholder Limited Liability With Vicarious Copyright Liability: Holding Parent Corporations Liable For The Copyright Infringement Of Subsidiaries, Joshua M. Siegel
Reconciling Shareholder Limited Liability With Vicarious Copyright Liability: Holding Parent Corporations Liable For The Copyright Infringement Of Subsidiaries, Joshua M. Siegel
University of Richmond Law Review
No abstract provided.
Unenforceable Fiduciary Duty Limitations: Why Drafting Partnership Agreements Limiting The Duty To Disclose And Partnership Opportunity Is More Precarious After Triple Five Of Minnesota, Inc. V. Simon, Aaron Hall
William Mitchell Law Review
No abstract provided.
Unraveling The Veil: The Concepts Of Limited Liability And Disregard Of The Corporate Entity, C. Christopher Adkins
Unraveling The Veil: The Concepts Of Limited Liability And Disregard Of The Corporate Entity, C. Christopher Adkins
ExpressO
An overview of limited liability and the doctrine of piercing the corporate veil. I focus on the factors courts consider in determining whether to disregard the corporate entity.
Law And The Rise Of The Firm , Henry Hansmann, Reiner Kraakman, Richard Squire
Law And The Rise Of The Firm , Henry Hansmann, Reiner Kraakman, Richard Squire
Faculty Scholarship
Organizational law empowers firms to hold assets and enter contracts as entities that are legally distinct from their owners and managers. Legal scholars and economists have commented extensively on one form of this partitioning between firms and owners: namely, the rule of limited liability that insulates firm owners from business debts. But a less-noticed form of legal partitioning, which we call "entity shielding," is both economically and historically more significant than limited liability. While limited liability shields owners' personal assets from a firm's creditors, entity shielding protects firm assets from the owners' personal creditors (and from creditors of other business …
The Economics Of Limited Liability: An Empirical Study Of New York Law Firms, Scott Baker, Kimberly D. Krawiec
The Economics Of Limited Liability: An Empirical Study Of New York Law Firms, Scott Baker, Kimberly D. Krawiec
ExpressO
Since the rapid rise in organizational forms for business associations, academics and practitioners have sought to explain the choice of form rationale. Each form contains its own set of default rules that inevitably get factored into this decision, including the extent to which each individual firm owner will be held personally liable for the collective debts and obligations of the firm. The significance of the differences in these default rules continues to be debated. Many commentators have advanced theories, most notably those based on unlimited liability, profit-sharing, and illiquidity, asserting that the partnership form provides efficiency benefits that outweigh any …
The Limits Of Business Limited Liability: Entity Veil Piercing And Successor Liability Doctrines, John H. Matheson
The Limits Of Business Limited Liability: Entity Veil Piercing And Successor Liability Doctrines, John H. Matheson
William Mitchell Law Review
The quest for limited liability in business enterprises and transactions has been a driving force in the development of business organization law for centuries. The historical development of corporations and limited partnerships evidences this primary goal. The recent development of the modern forms of limited liability partnerships and limited liability companies proves that this quest continues unabated. In addition, parties to significant business transfer transactions have long sought by construct and contract to apportion and limit their respective legal responsibilities and liabilities. Counterbalancing this inexorable trend toward limited liability has been the penchant of common law jurisprudence to define its …
Innovation In Corporate Law, Katharina Pistor, Yoram Keinan, Jan Kleinheisterkamp, Mark D. West
Innovation In Corporate Law, Katharina Pistor, Yoram Keinan, Jan Kleinheisterkamp, Mark D. West
Faculty Scholarship
In most countries large business enterprises today are organized as corporations. The corporation with its key attributes of independent personality, limited liability and free tradeability of shares has played a key role in most developed market economies since the 19th century and has made major inroads in emerging markets. We suggest that the resilience of the corporate form is a function of the adaptability of the legal framework to a changing environment. We analyze a country's capacity to innovate using the rate of statutory legal change, the flexibility of corporate law, and institutional change as indicators. Our findings suggest that …
A Control-Based Approach To Shareholder Liability For Corporate Torts, Nina A. Mendelson
A Control-Based Approach To Shareholder Liability For Corporate Torts, Nina A. Mendelson
Articles
Some commentators defend limited shareholder liability for torts and statutory violations as efficient, even though it encourages corporations to overinvest in and to externalize the costs of risky activity. Others propose pro rata unlimited shareholder liability for corporate torts. Both approaches, however, fail to account fully for qualitative differences among shareholders. Controlling shareholders, in particular, may have lower information costs, greater influence over managerial decisionmaking, and greater ability to benefit from corporate activity. This Article develops a control-based approach to shareholder liability. It first explores several differences among shareholders. For example, a controlling shareholder can more easily curb managerial risk …
The Evolution Of Corporate Law: A Cross- Country Comparison, Katharina Pistor, Yoram Keinan, Jan Kleinheisterkamp, Mark D. West
The Evolution Of Corporate Law: A Cross- Country Comparison, Katharina Pistor, Yoram Keinan, Jan Kleinheisterkamp, Mark D. West
Faculty Scholarship
The importance of law and legal institutions for economic development is widely acknowledged today. The invention of credit mechanisms to support long-distance trade has been hailed as one of the preconditions for the development of capitalism in Europe. The corporate form is regarded as another milestone for industrialization, the creation of viable market economies, and ultimately economic prosperity. Many former socialist countries quickly enacted new corporate codes or revived their pre-World War Two ("WWII") legislation. The failure of major privatization efforts to enhance enterprise efficiency is attributed to weaknesses in corporate governance, of which the corporate law is a crucial …
Taking The "I" Out Of "Team": Intra-Firm Monitoring And The Content Of Fiduciary Duties, Eric L. Talley
Taking The "I" Out Of "Team": Intra-Firm Monitoring And The Content Of Fiduciary Duties, Eric L. Talley
Faculty Scholarship
Depending on whom one asks, the last decades' proliferation of statutory business structures is a cause for either celebration or concern. Some laud this recent trend, arguing that a highly permutated menu of tax treatments, liability limitations, and governance hierarchies facilitates the alignment of legal status with organizational need. Others view statutory variety more skeptically, warning that it may simply portend greater cost externalization, strategic behavior, and distributional inequity. But one set of legal doctrines has persisted throughout: the concept of fiduciary duty. Indeed, fiduciary obligations remain fundamental to the legal governance structure of virtually every statutory business entity.
That …
Theories Of The Corporation And The Limited Liability Company: How Should Courts And Legislatures Articulate Rules For Piercing The Veil, Fiduciary Responsibility And Securities Regulation For The Limited Liability Company, David L. Cohen
Oklahoma Law Review
No abstract provided.