Digital Commons Network^™

The Uneasy Case For The Inside Director, Lisa M. Fairfax

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In the wake of recent scandals and the economic meltdown, there is nearly universal support for the notion that corporations must have independent directors. Conventional wisdom insists that independent directors can more effectively monitor the corporation and prevent or otherwise better detect wrongdoing. As the movement to increase director independence has gained traction, inside directors have become an endangered species, relegated to holding a minimal number of seats on the corporate board. This Article questions the popular trend away from inside directors by critiquing the rationales in favor of director independence, and assessing the potential advantages of inside directors. This …

The Dodd- Frank Wall Street Reform And Consumer Protection Act: What Caused The Financial Crisis And Will Dodd-Frank Succeed In Preventing Future Crises?, Charles W. Murdock

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Removing The Umpire’S Mask: The Propriety And Impact Of Judicial Apologies, Maxine D. Goodman

Utah Law Review

One additional question this Article raises is why judicial conduct often warrants an apology. In other words, why do judges behave so badly? Researching judicial apologies for this Article presented a distressing view of judicial behavior—the degree and amount of rude and offensive behavior, illustrated by the examples shared previously, was both surprising and disheartening. Ideally, other commentators may take this Article and build on the ideas regarding the role of emotions in judging, which would include the emotions that motivate apologies.

A Secure Online Payment System, Shristi Pant

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

An online payment system allows a customer to make a payment to an online merchant or a service provider. Payment gateways, a channel between customers and payment processors, use various security tools to secure a customer’s payment information, usually debit or credit card information, during an online payment. However, the security provided by a payment gateway cannot completely protect a customer’s payment information when a merchant also has the ability to obtain the payment information in some form. Furthermore, not all merchants provide a secure payment environment to their customers and, despite having a standard payment policy, adhere to it. …

Investigating The Relationship Between Governance Mechanisms And The Disclosure Of It Control Weaknesses, Basil Hamdan

Theses and Dissertations

The current research is concerned with exploring the quality of information technology (IT) control over financial reporting systems as reported under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. More specifically, this dissertation examines the association between organizational governance mechanisms and the occurrence and subsequent disclosure of IT control weaknesses. Despite the adverse impact of IT control weaknesses on internal control quality and financial reporting reliability, research on IT controls in general and IT control weaknesses in particular remains largely anecdotal with limited reliance on theory. The current work proposes and tests an integrated theoretical model of the antecedents of …

Developing A Forensic Continuous Audit Model, Grover S. Kearns, Katherine J. Barker, Stephen P. Danese

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Despite increased attention to internal controls and risk assessment, traditional audit approaches do not seem to be highly effective in uncovering the majority of frauds. Less than 20 percent of all occupational frauds are uncovered by auditors. Forensic accounting has recognized the need for automated approaches to fraud analysis yet research has not examined the benefits of forensic continuous auditing as a method to detect and deter corporate fraud. The purpose of this paper is to show how such an approach is possible. A model is presented that supports the acceptance of forensic continuous auditing by auditors and management as …

Financial Reporting Fraud : A Practical Guide To Detection And Internal Control, Charles R. Lundelius

Guides, Handbooks and Manuals

No abstract provided.

Ohio's Aggressive Attack On Medical Identity Theft, Stanley C. Ball

Journal of Law and Health

This note explains the severity of medical identity theft and the state and federal legislative reactions to the problem. Specifically, the note discusses data breach notification statutes that require healthcare providers to notify consumers when the systems holding customer personal information are breached. The note concludes that Ohio’s data breach notification statute, which does not expressly cover healthcare providers, should be amended to protect residents from medical identity theft and provide redress when healthcare providers violate state law.

The Influence Of Law And Economics On Law And Accounting: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back, Lawrence A. Cunningham

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Theory can have profound effects on practice, some intended and desirable, others unintended and undesirable. That's the story of the influence the field of law and economics has had on the domain of law and accounting. That influence comes primarily from agency theory and modern finance theory, specifically through the efficient capital market hypothesis and capital asset pricing model. Those theories have forged considerable change in federal securities regulation, accounting standard setting, state corporation law, and financial auditing. Affected areas include the nature of disclosure, the measure of financial concepts, the limits of shareholder protection, and the scope of auditor …

Global Finance, Multinationals And Human Rights: With Commentary On Backer's Critique Of The 2008 Report By John Ruggie, Faith Stevelman

Santa Clara Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Credit Derivatives, Leverage, And Financial Regulation's Missing Macroeconomic Dimension, Erik F. Gerding

Publications

Of all OTC derivatives, credit derivatives pose particular concerns because of their ability to generate leverage that can increase liquidity - or the effective money supply - throughout the financial system. Credit derivatives and the leverage they create thus do much more than increase the fragility of financial institutions and increase counterparty risk. By increasing leverage and liquidity, credit derivatives can fuel rises in asset prices and even asset price bubbles. Rising asset prices can then mask mistakes in the pricing of credit derivatives and in assessments of overall leverage in the financial system. Furthermore, the use of credit derivatives …

Global Finance, Multinationals And Human Rights: With Commentary On Backer's Critique Of The 2008 Report By John Ruggie, Faith Stevelman

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Transnational Crime In A Global Community: The Case Of West Africa, Holly Joanna Sims

Online Theses and Dissertations

This research project is an examination of the organization and behavior of criminal group activity in the region of West Africa. An assessment of the size, structure, and type of criminal enterprises crime groups are involved in are investigated. It is also uncovered if and how groups make use of corruption, the legit economy, and influence politicians. The environment in which transnational crime is able to thrive is also of great interest as the social, political, economic, and technological changes that occurred alongside the sudden trend in transnational crime activity are considered. The information is used to generate a discussion …

Exiles At Home: The Struggle To Become American In Creole New Orleans (Book Review), Mary Niall Mitchell

History Faculty Publications

The article reviews the book "Exiles at Home: The Struggle to Become American in Creole New Orleans," by Shirley Elizabeth Thompson.

A Neural Network Approach To Estimating The Allowance For Bad Debt, Donald Joyner

Theses and Dissertations

The granting of credit is a necessary risk of doing business. If companies only accepted cash, sales would be negatively impacted. In a perfect world, all consumers would pay their bills when they become due. However, the fact is that some consumers do default on debt. Companies are willing to accept default risk because the value of defaults does not exceed the value of the additional sales generated. This creates an issue in regards to the valuation of uncollectible accounts. In order for a company to disclose the true value of its accounts receivable, it must establish an allowance for …

Not-For-Profit Entities With Conforming Changes As Of March 1, 2011; Audit And Accounting Guide, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

Applying The Common-Law Cause Of Action Negligent Enablement Of Imposter Fraud To Social Networking Sites, Shannon N. Sterritt

Seton Hall Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Introduction" To "Symposium: The Fate Of Anglo-American Capitalism", Sandra J. Peart

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The call for papers in this special issue asked whether there is a future for the robust sort of capitalism favoured by Adam Smith or whether we have reached a limit to Anglo-American capitalism as the engine of human betterment. Contemporary events loomed large late in 2008 and it seemed appropriate to consider whether Anglo-American capitalism was passing away. We were particularly interested in contributions that viewed current economic events through a lens informed by Smith's teaching on institutions, money and economic growth.

A Proposal For Calculating Reimbursed Victims Of Financial Identity Theft Under The Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Roy Michael Anderson

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

No abstract provided.

Potential Litigation Against Auditors For Negligence, Thomas C. Pearson

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

No abstract provided.

Ant Colony Optimization Approach For Stacking Configurations, Yijun Chen

Lingnan Theses

In data mining, classifiers are generated to predict the class labels of the instances. An ensemble is a decision making system which applies certain strategies to combine the predictions of different classifiers and generate a collective decision. Previous research has empirically and theoretically demonstrated that an ensemble classifier can be more accurate and stable than its component classifiers in most cases. Stacking is a well-known ensemble which adopts a two-level structure: the base-level classifiers to generate predictions and the meta-level classifier to make collective decisions. A consequential problem is: what learning algorithms should be used to generate the base-level and …

Skilling: More Blind Monks Examining The Elephant, Julie R. O'Sullivan

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Most academics and practitioners with whom the author has discussed the result in Skilling v. United States believe that it is a sensible decision. That is, the Supreme Court did the best it could to limit the reach of 18 U.S.C. § 1346, which all nine justices apparently believed—correctly—was, on its face, unconstitutionally vague. Congress responded quickly and with little consideration with the supremely under-defined § 1346. In the over twenty years since the statute's enactment, the Courts of Appeals have been unable to come up with any unified limiting principles to contain its reach. The Skilling Court, evidently reluctant …

Institutionalization, Investment Adviser Regulation, And The Hedge Fund Problem, Anita K. Krug

Articles

This Article contends that more effective regulation of investment advisers could be achieved by recognizing that the growth of hedge funds, private equity funds, and other private funds in recent decades is a manifestation of institutionalization in the investment advisory context. That is, investment advisers today commonly advise these “institutions,” which have supplanted other, smaller investors as advisory clients.

However, the federal securities statute governing investment advisers, the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, does not address the role of private funds as institutions that now intermediate those smaller investors' relationships to investment advisers. Consistent with that failure, investment adviser regulation …

Global Finance, Multinationals And Human Rights: With Commentary On Backer’S Critique Of The 2008 Report By John Ruggie, Faith Stevelman

Faculty Articles

This article references the excellent article of Larry Cata Backer, as it provides an analysis of the 2008 Report's "Protect, Respect, Remedy" (PRR) framework. Ruggie's most recent efforts, reflected in the 2010 Report, are directed at operationalizing the PRR framework set forth in the 2008 Report. Both these reports have been vetted internationally amongst governments, lawyers, academics and human rights advocates. How will governments, corporations, trade associations and rights advocates conceptualize and construct the fora and modes of recourse available to persons aggrieving human rights abuses? That question is the central focus of the 2010 Report and, as such, lies …

Exploring Identity Management At Community Colleges In Texas With Open Access To College Computer Networks, Michael John Callahan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The study addressed the lack of identity management practices in Texas community colleges to identify guest users who access college computers. Guest user access is required by Texas law and is part of the state's mission to bridge the technology gap; however, improper identification methods leave the college vulnerable to liability issues. The purpose of this study was to eliminate or mitigate liabilities facing colleges by creating and using security policies to identify guest users. This study combined the theoretical concepts of Cameron's internal security management model with the external trust models of the Liberty Alliance and Microsoft's Passport software. …

Enhanced "Blue Sky" Enforcement: A Path To Help Solve Our Public School Funding Dilemma, Marc I. Steinberg

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Consumer Indebtedness Crisis: Law School Clinics As Laboratories For Generating Effective Legal Responses, Peggy Maisel, Natalie Roman

Faculty Scholarship

For the legal system to operate effectively, it must address problems arising from the absence of needed laws, or, if enacted, of laws that have been drafted poorly or are not being implemented in a fair and just manner. Since law schools are generally part of a larger university community, they are uniquely placed to serve as laboratories to find solutions to such problems, perhaps nowhere more so than in their legal clinics. The latter have in fact often played the role of legal innovators, but their contributions to the law and therefore to society at large have been little …

Auditor Tenure And Audit Quality, Li Zheng Brooks

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

I propose that audit quality is likely to increase with audit firm tenure due to a Learning Effect and decrease with audit firm tenure due to a Bonding Effect. The net impact of these two countervailing forces over audit firm tenure dictates whether the relationship between audit firm tenure and audit quality is a concave, convex, or linear function of audit firm tenure. When the Bonding Effect dominates the Learning Effect in the later (earlier) years of tenure, then audit quality is a concave (convex) function of audit firm tenure. Adopting the quadratic model to empirically estimate the audit firm …