Securities Law Commons^™

Bridging The Gap In Corporate Governance For Interlocking Directors In Colombia, Juan D. Ovalle

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

Climate, Clarity, Controversy: A Constitutional, Statutory, And Policy Analysis Of The Sec’S Proposed Climate Disclosure Rules, Astoneia O. Moss

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

The burgeoning ESG movement has heightened investors’ interest in how companies steward the environment in which they operate; manage their human capital; and implement strategies to effectively manage and fulfill the desires of stakeholders. As a result, the SEC has sought to implement a mandatory climate-related disclosure regime to provide investors with public companies’ climate-related data to assist in the investment decision-making process. The proposed climate-related disclosure rule has faced criticism from businesses, politicians, and legal scholars on constitutional, statutory, and policy grounds. This Comment concludes that based on the statutory language of the Securities Act of 1933 and Securities …

Catalyzing Climate Resilience In The Electric Utility Sector: Investor-Backed Utilities Must Prepare For The Approaching Storm, Jose J. Gonzalez

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

Communities and businesses that fail to take proactive measures will be devastated by the impacts of climate change. Across the United States, public and private entities have taken steps to protect companies and communities from climate change. However, financial restrictions and shareholder concerns have slowed such a response from the electric utility sector. This inaction has devastated communities such as Paradise, California and Lahaina, Hawaii. This Comment identifies how electric utility companies should utilize recently passed federal legislation, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, to finance large-scale projects to update America's power grid. This Comment also argues …

Antitrust, Labor Markets, And Issue-Spotting Dei Initiatives, Francesca Pisano

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

The End Of Remedies?, Joshua Shapiro

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

Negotiating For Certainty In An Uncertain World, Matthew D. Kent

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

When Can An Agreement On Environmental Policies Comply With U.S. Antitrust Laws?, Nathan Mendelsohn

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

Federal Enforcers Signal Heightened Scrutiny Of Algorithm Use To Inform Pricing Decisions, Lohr A. Beck, Carley H. Thompson

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

From Director Liability To Officer Liability To Esg Caremark Claims: A Natural Evolution?, Gareth Mchugh

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

With the McDonald’s decision, officers and directors could face Caremark liability for the first time, and this decision could also lead to an influx of ESG-based Caremark claims in Delaware Courts. This Comment explains that, while ESG Caremark claims would force corporations to adopt ESG oversight systems to avoid liability, the very political, social, and legal environment that created a growing call for ESG Caremark claims presents a beneficial opportunity for corporations to appeal to consumers and investors by proactively adopting ESG oversight systems. Corporations are at a nexus where they can either willingly adopt ESG oversight systems and reap …

Shareholder Inspection Rights: From Credible Basis To Rational Belief, Lynn Bai

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

Jurisdictions are split on the standard of proof for shareholder inspection lawsuits when inspections are for the purpose of investigating managerial misconduct. Delaware and its followers apply a credible basis standard that calls for extrinsic evidence, beyond mere suspicion, curiosity, or disagreement with management, to permit an inference of misconduct. A minority of jurisdictions require shareholders to show merely a rational belief that mismanagement likely happened. Rational belief can be satisfied by sound logic without referencing extrinsic evidence. The Delaware Supreme Court rejected rational belief for fear that a permissive standard would lead to a cascade of frivolous inspections, although …

Constraining Corporate Law Principles In Affiliate World, Anita K. Krug

Emory Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Inherently Incompatible: The Irreconcilable Tension Between Corporate Negligence Claims And The Federal Tort Claims Act, Veronica J. Finkelstein

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

United We Stand, Divided We Fall: A Survey Of Current Public And Private Initiatives Addressing Board Diversity & A Proposed Sec Diversity Disclosure To Help Increase Board Diversity, Gabrielle Hunter

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

40 Acres And A Mule: Accountability For Corporations To Provide Reparations To Historically Black Colleges And Universities For Profits From Slave Labor, Meghan K. Marks

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

To Have Or Have Not: The Limits Of Comply-Or-Explain Governance In An American Exchange, Johnson A. Salisbury Jr.

Emory Law Journal

In 2020, the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (“Nasdaq”) proposed a comply-or-explain governance rule to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), aimed at increasing diversity in companies listed on its exchange. The resulting listing rule—approved by the SEC in 2021—was met with a mixed chorus of cheers and jeers from the public and regulated companies. Missing from that chorus, however, was an analysis of the effectiveness of Nasdaq’s approach in using a flexible, predominantly international comply-or-explain governance model to regulate the companies listed on its exchange.

Framed as a disclosure code, Nasdaq’s Listing Rule 5605(f)(2) requires listed companies …

Corporate Response To The War In Ukraine: Stakeholder Governance Or Stakeholder Pressure?, Anete Pajuste, Anna Toniolo

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

This Article empirically investigates the corporate response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the framework of the stakeholder capitalism debate. Some describe corporate leaders’ decision to withdraw from Russia as an example of stakeholder governance, maintaining that they placed social responsibility over profits. Others question the authenticity of corporate support for Ukraine and argue that companies left Russia mainly driven by operational and reputational concerns.

Against this backdrop, we conduct an empirical study of reactions to the outbreak of the war from companies in the S&P500 and STOXX600 indices. We explore whether managers effectively decided mostly on ethical and …

Soft Law: The Optimal Legal Framework For Global Financial Regulation, Yussuf A. Aleem

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

The regulation of global finance comprises an unorthodox legal framework. Unlike other areas of economic regulation or international law, more generally, this framework is not directed through intergovernmental organizations with formal legal status. Moreover, commitments (or best practice standards) made by various regulatory officials are non-binding and subject to significant variation. This departure is especially unique when comparing financial regulation to areas such as international trade law or environmental law.[1]

The purpose of this Paper is to provide a positive analysis explaining the prevalence of this form of “soft” law, and normatively suggest why such a framework is the …

I Can Still Hear You Saying You Would Never Break The Chain: How Higher Education Admissions Policies Put Law Firms At Risk Of Losing Corporate Clients, Jolie Abrams

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

Circuit Split Analysis: Involuntary Arbitration Agreements, Tyler Blackington

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

The Big Ban(G) Theory, Max Chen, Liu Ming Xin

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

The term “Big Tech” is referred to: Amazon, Apple, Facebook (Meta), Google and Microsoft. These companies are the five largest multinational online service or computer hardware and software companies and have the top position in the stock market by market share. Data indicated that these five firms have made over 700 acquisitions from 1987 to 2019. (Google 32%, Microsoft 31%, Apple 15%, Amazon 11%, and Facebook 11%). After 2001, The DOJ and FTC began to use NAICS codes to report HSR (Hart-Scott-Rodino) transactions. The code name is NAICS 518 for data processing, hosting, and related services (mainly including Google, Amazon, …

A Future Of Mandatory Environment, Social, And Governance (Esg) Disclosures: A Review Of Public Comments As A Case Study In The Impact Of Esg, Jessica Dennis Jackson

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

Universal Owners, Shareholder Primacy, And Stakeholderism, Daniel Irvin

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

The rise of massive asset owners like large pension funds and sovereign wealth funds has created interest in the phenomenon of Universal Owners. The climate crisis, environmental degradation, and worsening inequality have also led to challenges to the current models of corporate governance, with a particular interest on the idea of corporate purpose. This paper fills a gap by addressing the intersection of these two trends, proposing a framework by which Universal Owners should view corporate purpose. I argue that from a returns-maximizing perspective, Universal Owners should prefer a flavor of shareholder primacy that believes the corporation’s purpose is to …

An Ocean Apart: The Mandatory Takeover Rule In Brazil And In Europe, Jorge Brito Pereira

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

The common statement that there are two different regulatory systems concerning the mandatory takeover rule – the market rule system and the equal opportunity system – is, in practice, overly simplistic: facing the choice between freedom and strict regulation on whether the control premium should be proportionally shared with all non-controlling shareholders, some jurisdictions have adopted a hybrid solution. The Brazilian mandatory takeover rule (re)approved in 2001 is a good example. This paper will comprehensively analyse the Brazilian and European rules on mandatory takeover bids, using empirical data about the Brazilian markets and details of various cases that tested the …

Why Antitrust, Not Unionization, Is The Answer To Underpayment Of Student-Athletes, Evan Nelson

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

This Comment examines whether student-athletes should be allowed to unionize and collectively bargain for their rights and will present a legal argument against the unionization of student-athletes. The reasoning behind this argument is that student-athletes are not employees, and therefore, are not able to unionize. Even if student-athletes were categorized as employees, they would struggle to collectively bargain for their rights due to various states’ laws that prohibit public employees from unionizing. Rather, this Comment argues that the answer to solving college athlete underpayment is through the remedies that can be provided in antitrust law. The reasoning behind this argument …

Realizing Diversity, Sustainability, And Stakeholder Capitalism, Peter H. Huang

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

Stakeholder capitalism conceives of capitalism with companies maximizing their long-term value, while considering in addition to the interests of their shareholders, also the interests of all their other stakeholders. Examples of such additional stakeholders include customers, employees, communities, creditors, competitors, society at large, and our planet. America today does not have stakeholder capitalism. Instead, America presently has shareholder capitalism, in which publicly held corporations only maximize their stock value to shareholders.

This Essay analyzes proposals for the United States Securities Exchange Commission to require that all reporting companies make periodic mandatory Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosures of comparable, standardized, …

The Extraterritorial Reach Of Section 10(B): A Wolf Hunt Off Wall Street, Radley Gillis

Emory Law Journal

Born to combat the market effects of the Great Depression, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 protects American investors and maintains American confidence in the U.S. securities market. These objectives are largely accomplished through the imposition of liability from Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and the SEC’s Rule 10b-5. These federal laws impose civil and criminal penalties for domestic insider trading and securities fraud violations. Because Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 only apply domestically, when securities violations occur both within the United States and abroad, the reach of federal law becomes questionable, leaving federal courts with a complex …

Cyber Conflicts In Outer Space: Lessons From Scada Cybersecurity, Roy Balleste

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

The story of cybersecurity begins in land. By land, a cyber operations expert would mean the land mass on the surface of the Earth. The great monuments to human achievement surround our daily lives, every hour of every day. These testaments to human ingenuity are not the usual ones known to be appreciated as works of art. The monuments of concern for cybersecurity include, among others, power plants, electrical substations, water dams, water processing plants, auto assembly factories, and satellite ground stations. On January 10, 2014, Australia’s IT News reported that Russian researchers Sergey Gordeychik and Gleb Gritsai discovered vulnerabilities …

Posted: No Phising, Lawrence J. Trautman, Mohammed T. Hussein, Emmanuel U. Opara, Mason J. Molesky, Shahedur Rahman

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

Any engineering approach to cybersecurity must recognize that many breaches are the result of human behavior, rather than sophisticated malware. Effective cybersecurity defenses require a systematic engineering approach that recognizes the organizational, cultural and psychological barriers to effectively dealing with this problem. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) defines “phishing” as, “the use of fraudulent emails and copy-cat websites to trick you into revealing valuable personal information—such as account numbers for banking, securities, mortgage, or credit accounts, your social security numbers, and the login IDs and passwords you use when accessing online financial service providers.” Once this information is …

Public Benefit Corporations: There's No Public Benefit To Breaching Fiduciary Duties, Oderah Nwaeze

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

During the spring and summer of 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States witnessed large, public protests and activism reminiscent of the 1950s and 60s. Following the death of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police, the American public once again mobilized to fight the ills and inequities of racism and discrimination. A significant number of nonprofit organizations and government departments have been created to resolve the social and political issues that plague Americans. Even Corporate America has been called to act, given that seventy percent of consumers are interested in the …

Electric Vehicle Limbo: The Need For Charging Incentives, Shahil Patel

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

A study published by AAA in 2018 shows, “20 percent or 50 million Americans, will likely go electric for their next vehicle purchase.” This means that 1/5 Americans plan on moving on from their previous gasoline car to an electric vehicle. Fast forward to 2021, electric vehicle technology has vastly improved in the battery, range, and charging spheres which further popularizes this movement. It is evident that companies have taken note, as announcements of new electric vehicles coming to the market keeps increasing. There are many reasons for this shift and electric vehicles are set to become the future. However, …