Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

Ability To Pay, John A. E. Pottow

Articles

The landmark Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 ("Dodd-Frank") transforms the regulation of consumer credit in the United States. Many of its changes have been high-profile, attracting considerable media and scholarly attention, most notably the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB"). Even specific consumer reforms, such as a so-called "plain vanilla" proposal, drew hot debate and lobbying firepower. But when the dust settled, one profoundly transformative innovation that did not garner the same outrage as plain vanilla or the CFPB did get into the law: imposing upon lenders a duty to assure a borrower's ability to repay. Ensuring a borrower's …

Agenda Control In The Bundestag, 1980-2002, William M. Chandler, Gary W. Cox, Mathew D. Mccubbins

Faculty Scholarship

We find strong evidence of monopoly legislative agenda control by government parties in the Bundestag. First, the government parties have near-zero roll rates, while the opposition parties are often rolled over half the time. Second, only opposition parties’ (and not government parties’) roll rates increase with the distances of each party from the floor median. Third, almost all policy moves are towards the government coalition (the only exceptions occur during periods of divided government). Fourth, roll rates for government parties sky- rocket when they fall into the opposition and roll rates for opposition parties plummet when they enter government, while …

Social Welfare Reform: An Analysis Of Germany's Agenda 2010 Labor Market Reforms And The United States' Personal Responsibility And Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (Prwora) Of 1996, Jennifer Allison

Jennifer Allison

This 2006 student comment presents a historical view of the social welfare systems in the United States and Germany. It then explains and analyzes recent large-scale reforms made to each country's social welfare system - the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 in the United States, which profoundly impacted the availability of welfare benefits to poor Americans, and Germany's Agenda 2010 campaign, which, in accordance with the recommendations of the Hartz Commission, reformed Germany's legislative system of providing benefits to the long-term unemployed.

The Limited Public Offer In German And U.S. Securities Law: A Comparative Analysis Of Prospectus Act Section 2(2) And Rule 505 Of Regulation D, David B. Guenther

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Note examines the "limited circle of persons" exception in section 2(2) of the Prospectus Act in comparison to similar provisions of U.S. federal securities law, particularly Section 3(b) of the Securities Act of 1933 (the "Securities Act") and Rule 505 of Regulation D ("Rule 505"). Comparison of the Prospectus Act to U.S. securities law seems both warranted and useful. Certain aspects of German securities law are broadly modeled on U.S. precedents. U.S. securities laws reflect more than sixty-five years of experience defining (and re-defining) public and limited public offers and private placements. U.S. securities regulators have also displayed in …

New German Telecommunications Act, The, Axel Spies, Jan F. Wrede

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

In the wake of the debate in Germany on how to weather the storms against the "marketplace Germany" (Unternehmensstandort Deutschland) the new German Telecommunications Act ("TA") has been earmarked as a milestone. Its supporters hail the TA to spur competition in Germany's telecommunications market, which they expect to have a turnover of over DM 100 billion (app. US $66 billion) by the year 2000.... This article seeks to summarize the salient features of the TA and to outline the perspectives for potential foreign investors in the German telecommunications market as to the regulatory environment such investor will face. For this …

Withdrawal And Expulsion In Germany: A Comparative Perspective On The "Close Corporation Problem", Hugh T. Scogin Jr.

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article will examine the German legal system's experience with fashioning remedies for the "close corporation problem" and the underlying concepts that have shaped these remedies. Part I will trace the growth of the doctrines of withdrawal and expulsion in the context of Germany's troubled history. Part II will compare German and U.S. approaches on both practical and conceptual levels. On one level, the focus of the article is narrow. It deals with specific, technical solutions to only the most extreme examples of the close corporation problem. Such cases are not frequently litigated. Their doctrines do, however, constitute default rules …

On The "Auschwitz Lie", Herbert A. Strauss, Ernst Nolte, Helge Grabitz, Christian Meier

Michigan Law Review

In the November 1986 issue of the Michigan Law Review, Professor Eric Stein addressed the then-recent German legislation prohibiting the "Auschwitz lie." The "Auschwitz lie" refers to contemporary attempts to deny the historical truth of the Holocaust.

In the time since his article was published, Professor Stein has corresponded with several European scholars on the issues raised by the 1985 legislation. That correspondence, though brief, highlights the contentious aspects of Professor Stein's analysis; it suggests that the issues of restricting "historical speech," promoting national consciousness, attributing collective guilt, and identifying the role of courts in punishing historical lies remain troublesome …

Political Asylum In The Federal Republic Of Germany And The Republic Of France: Lessons For The United States, T. Alexander Aleinikoff

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The recent flood of asylum claims, and the concerns it engenders, are not peculiar to the United States. Western European nations have witnessed similar increases in asylum applications over the past decade, .and institutions charged with adjudicating claims have become severely overburdened. This Article will describe the experience of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of France in coping with the explosion of asylum claims. A comparative analysis may provide perspective on the American situation and perhaps suggest - or rule out - proposals for change currently under consideration in the United States. To appreciate the saliency of …