Digital Commons Network^™

International Insolvency Case Venue In The European Union: The Parmalat And Daisytek Controversies, Samuel Bufford

Faculty Scholarship

The European Union Insolvency Regulation (the EU Regulation) is a giant step forward in promoting international cooperation among EU countries for cross-border insolvency proceedings. It adopts a modified universalist solution to cross-border proceedings insofar as they are located within the EU. However, experience has shown that it needs improvement to work effectively. A venue battle now rages between courts of several European countries over which country's courts will administer particular cross-border proceedings and how the center of main interest is to be determined for this purpose.

This Article begins with a detailed examination of the two principal cases where conflicts …

Financial Information Failure And Lawyer Responsibility, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

When public firms collapse amid allegations of financial information failure-such as misleading financial statements-society looks beyond the role of accountants to see who else should be held responsible. Lawyers advising the firm increasingly are charged with responsibility, perhaps because modern financial and business complexities, as well as rules that make accounting determinations turn in part on legal conclusions, have blurred the boundary between legal and accounting duties. Lawyers should want to satisfy this responsibility not only to avoid liability but also to safeguard their reputation and integrity. The difficult question, which this article attempts to answer, is what that responsibility …

Panel Discussion: Bigger Carrots And Bigger Sticks: Issues And Developments In Corporate Sentencing, Jill E. Fisch, Hon. John S. Martin, Richard C. Breeden, Timothy Coleman, Stephen M. Cutler, Celeste Koeleveld, Richard H. Walker

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Symposium Religious Values And Corporate Decision Making: An Interdisciplinary Interfaith Conference For Corporate Executives And Legal Counsel, Amelia J. Uelmen, William Michael Treanor

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Symposium Panel One: Does Corporate Decision Making Allow Room For Religious Values, Russell G. Pearce, Steven H. Resnicoff, Mark A. Sargent, W Bradley Wendel

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Symposium Panel Three: Viable Models: Shareholder Resolutions, Patricia Daly, Rabbi Mordechai Liebling

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Symposium Panel Two: Managing As If Faith Matters, Talat Ansari, Charles M.A Clark, Joseph E. Geoghan

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Symposium Final Discussion, Robert Hurley

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

A Patient-Centered Approach To Health Care Fraud Recovery, Joan H. Krause

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

No abstract provided.

The Decline Of The Attorney-Client Privilege In The Corporate Setting, William R. Mclucas, Howard M. Shapiro, Julie J. Song

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

No abstract provided.

Symposium Keynote Address: An Economist's Perspective, Stefano Zamagni, Henry Schwalbenberg Response

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Dirty Laundry, Mona Mullins Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Making art is cathartic for me. Working in a visual medium allows me to communicate ideas and feelings that I would find difficult to express in words. I use a wide variety of traditional and non-traditional materials as symbolic elements in my work. While the pieces are not always pretty, my goal is that they contain an element of irony and humor which helps us laugh at ourselves.

Designing A Data Warehouse For Cyber Crimes, Il-Yeol Song, John D. Maguire, Ki Jung Lee, Namyoun Choi, Xiaohua Hu, Peter Chen

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

One of the greatest challenges facing modern society is the rising tide of cyber crimes. These crimes, since they rarely fit the model of conventional crimes, are difficult to investigate, hard to analyze, and difficult to prosecute. Collecting data in a unified framework is a mandatory step that will assist the investigator in sorting through the mountains of data. In this paper, we explore designing a dimensional model for a data warehouse that can be used in analyzing cyber crime data. We also present some interesting queries and the types of cyber crime analyses that can be performed based on …

A Curriculum For Teaching Information Technology Investigative Techniques For Auditors, Grover S. Kearns

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Recent prosecutions of highly publicized white-collar crimes combined with public outrage have resulted in heightened regulation of financial reporting and greater emphasis on systems of internal control. Because both white-collar and cybercrimes are usually perpetrated through computers, internal and external auditors’ knowledge of information technology (IT) is now more vital than ever. However, preserving digital evidence and investigative techniques, which can be essential to fraud examinations, are not skills frequently taught in accounting programs and instruction in the use of computer assisted auditing tools and techniques – applications that might uncover fraudulent activity – is limited. Only a few university-level …

The Legal Character Of Private Codes Of Conduct: More Than Just A Pseudo-Formal Gloss On Corporate Social Responsibility, Veronica Besmer

UC Law Business Journal

Corporate codes, nothing more than statements that define a corporation's own best behavior, have become ubiquitous in today's business reality that witnesses ever-louder demands for greater corporate accountability. However, the codes' enforceability is uncertain, as they lack the statutory liability or the jurisdictional nexus in case of transnational enterprises. Still, consumers, who are increasingly socially and environmentally conscious, often reward any voluntary declaration of corporate social responsibility. This article outlines the current forms of regulations and reviews some legal enforcement theories. The author concludes that quasi-formal enforcement mechanisms such as stakeholder pressure and greater consumer demand for responsible corporate behavior …

Reflections On Scienter (And The Securities Fraud Case Against Martha Stewart That Never Happened), Donald C. Langevoort

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper considers what research in cognitive psychology and behavioral economics has to say about one of the basic "state of mind" constructs in the law of fraud: scienter. It takes a clinical approach, examining the securities fraud case that never happened against Martha Stewart. In granting a judgment of acquittal in Stewart's favor on the securities fraud charge, the court seemingly misunderstood the law of scienter, which turns on awareness rather than purpose. But that simply provides an opportunity to think about what awareness means in the context of financial transactions. From publicly available sources, interesting inferences can be …

Criticizing The Critics: Sarbanes-Oxley And Quack Corporate Governance, J. Robert Brown Jr.

Marquette Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federalism In Securities Regulation: A Brief Introduction And Reflection, Christopher M. Wood

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Empirical Evidence In Evaluating The Wisdom Of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, James D. Cox

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Oligopolistic Gatekeeper: The U.S. Accounting Profession, James D. Cox

Faculty Scholarship

The accounting and financial scandals the last few years not only produced the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, but have prompted a good deal of debate what forces led to so many dramatic reporting failures. This article is the only work to examine how the competitive structure of the accounting industry contributed to its movement from being a profession to a business that performed auditing. In the article we find not only documentation that the accounting profession is an oligopoly but a sound explanation of how its poor structure contributes significantly to negative social welfare. Throughout the article provides rich support of data …

Cataclysmic Liability Risk Among Big Four Auditors, Eric L. Talley

Faculty Scholarship

Since Arthur Andersen's implosion in 2002, policymakers have been encouraged with ever increasing urgency to insulate the auditing industry from legal liability. Advocates of such insulation cite many arguments, but the gravamen of their case is that the profession faces such significant risk of cataclysmic liability that its long term viability is imperiled. In this Essay, I explore the nature of these claims as a legal, theoretical, and empirical matter. Legally, it is clear that authority exists (within both state and federal law) to impose liability on auditing firms for financial fraud, and courts have been doing so sporadically for …

Reforming The Securities Class Action: On Deterrence And Its Implementation, John C. Coffee Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

Securities class actions impose enormous penalties, but they achieve little compensation and only limited deterrence. This is because of a basic circularity underlying the securities class action: When damages are imposed on the corporation, they essentially fall on diversified shareholders, thereby producing mainly pocket-shifting wealth transfers among shareholders. The current equilibrium benefits corporate insiders, insurers, and plaintiffs' attorneys, but not investors. The appropriate answer to this problem is not to abandon securities litigation, but to shift the incidence of its penalties so that, in the secondary market context, they fall less on the corporation and more on those actors who …

Corporate Governance, Public Accounting Firm And Multinational Corporation: The Us Sox Act Perspective, Marc Massoud, Eunsup Daniel Shim

WCBT Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to review US corporate governance systems and to highlight the mandated roles of audit committee and external auditor within the SOX Act. In addition, it discusses requirements and implications of the SOX Act for the foreign accounting firms and multinational corporations. Finally this paper provides a perspective on improvement of corporate governance and financial integrity. In order to regain trust from the financial market, the SOX Act mandates (1) to improve auditor’s independence by reducing conflicts of interest; (2) to increase corporate financial reporting responsibility by requiring a CEO or a CFO certify accuracy …

Dawn Of The Death Of Distributed Denial Of Service: How To Kill Zombies, Lilian Edwards

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Next Epidemic: Bubbles And The Growth And Decay Of Securities Regulation, Erik F. Gerding

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores how speculative bubbles undermine the effectiveness of securities regulations and spawn epidemics of securities fraud. A brief historical survey demonstrates that stock market bubbles almost invariably coincide with epidemics of securities fraud, and provides a compelling argument that the outbreak of fraud in the Enron era did not stem merely from factors unique to the 1990s, but from the dynamics of an asset price bubble as well. Drawing on perspectives from securities law practice and economic theory, the article argues that bubbles dilute the deterrent effect of antifraud rules and promote deregulation. Both effects alter the calculus …

The Next Epidemic: Bubbles And The Growth And Decay Of Securities Regulation, Erik F. Gerding

Publications

This article explores how speculative bubbles undermine the effectiveness of securities regulations and spawn epidemics of securities fraud. A brief historical survey demonstrates that stock market bubbles almost invariably coincide with epidemics of securities fraud, and provides a compelling argument that the outbreak of fraud in the Enron era did not stem merely from factors unique to the 1990s, but from the dynamics of an asset price bubble as well.

Drawing on perspectives from securities law practice and economic theory, the article argues that bubbles dilute the deterrent effect of antifraud rules and promote deregulation. Both effects alter the calculus …

Daedalean Tinkering, Sean J. Griffith

Michigan Law Review

Part I of this Review describes Skeel's account of corporate scandal, focusing on the central theme of excessive risk-taking. Part II examines Skeel's most original policy proposal-the creation of an investor insurance scheme to protect against excessive risk. Although the proposal takes up only a few pages of the book, it targets the books' core concern-the risk of corporate fraud. In evaluating the proposed investor insurance regime, this Review raises a set of objections based on cost and administrability and argues that an insurance regime would be duplicative of existing mechanisms that effectively spread the risk of financial fraud. Part …

Development And Delivery Of Coursework: The Legal/Regulatory/Policy Environment Of Cyberforensics, John W. Bagby, John C. Ruhnka

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper describes a cyber-forensics course that integrates important public policy and legal issues as well as relevant forensic techniques. Cyber-forensics refers to the amalgam of multi-disciplinary activities involved in the identification, gathering, handling, custody, use and security of electronic files and records, involving expertise from the forensic domain, and which produces evidence useful in the proof of facts for both commercial and legal activities. The legal and regulatory environment in which electronic discovery takes place is of critical importance to cyber-forensics experts because the legal process imposes both constraints and opportunities for the effective use of evidence gathered through …

Computer Forensics Field Triage Process Model, Marcus K. Rogers, James Goldman, Rick Mislan, Timothy Wedge, Steve Debrota

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

With the proliferation of digital based evidence, the need for the timely identification, analysis and interpretation of digital evidence is becoming more crucial. In many investigations critical information is required while at the scene or within a short period of time - measured in hours as opposed to days. The traditional cyber forensics approach of seizing a system(s)/media, transporting it to the lab, making a forensic image(s), and then searching the entire system for potential evidence, is no longer appropriate in some circumstances. In cases such as child abductions, pedophiles, missing or exploited persons, time is of the essence. In …

Recommendations For A Comprehensive Identity Theft Victimization Survey Framework And Information Technology Prevention Strategies, Sara Berg

Theses

While steps have been undertaken in the last five years to better understand the problem of identity theft, there has been little research done in the areas of high tech crime victim profiling and prevention. Most studies focus on victim demographics without examining ways in which the victimization may have been facilitated technologically. Attempts to look at precipitating behaviors in the context of victimization are limited. As such, a weak empirical base exists on which to generate additional research and potential solutions to identity theft victimization. This thesis bridges previous identity theft research with other empirical studies in order to …