Law Commons^™

Hedge Funds And The Financial Crisis, Houman B. Shadab

Articles & Chapters

The performance of hedge funds during the financial crisis suggests that wide-ranging financial regulation is not always necessary to advance investor protection and financial stability. While 2008 was a year of record hedge fund losses and investor withdrawals that came about in part because many hedge fund managers failed to adequately respond to the financial crisis, the hedge fund industry significantly outperformed the heavily regulated mutual fund sector and, unlike the banking industry, was never in jeopardy of collapsing. Hedge funds did not cause or meaningfully exacerbate the financial crisis and in fact have reduced its impact and are helping …

A Fair Price And A Fair Deal: On The Future Of 'Entire Fairness' In Freezeouts, Faith Stevelman

Articles & Chapters

Controlling shareholders can compel the sale of minorities’ shares in freezeouts, potentially to their financial detriment. To limit controllers’ opportunism and support the value of minorities’ investments, the Delaware supreme court has endorsed strong minority shareholder protections under the rubric of 'Entire Fairness' – the governing standard for cash-out mergers. However, the court of chancery has refused to apply Entire Fairness to tender offer freezeouts, and is advocating unifying freezeout doctrine around a looser, deferential standard of review. The influence of popular and Congressional concern over excess plaintiff lawyers’ fees and discovery costs is likely making itself felt, although the …

Introduction, Richard D. Marsico

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Racial Disparities In Subprime Home Mortgage Lending In New York City: Meaning And Implications, Richard D. Marsico, Jane Yoo

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Il Contagio Dei Subprime

Patricia A. McCoy

No abstract provided.

The Financial Sector Upheaval Of 2008: Sociological Antecedents And Their Implications For Investment Company Regulation, Larry Barnett

Larry D Barnett

In 2008, the United States experienced a severe contraction in the availability of credit, a marked reduction in the price of common stocks, and an appreciable increase in interest rates on debt instruments issued by business entities and by state and local governments. The premise of the instant article is that, although this upheaval was economic in form and sudden in occurrence, it stemmed from change that was sociological in character and that started in prior decades. Specifically, the 2008 upheaval in finance is traced to a shift in social values among Americans - namely, an increased prevalence of hedonism …

The Return Of The Rogue, Kimberly D. Krawiec

Kimberly D. Krawiec

The rogue trader—a figure that captured public attention in the 1990s— has returned to the spotlight, largely due to two phenomena. First, market volatility stemming from problems in the U.S. mortgage market spilled over into stock, commodity, and derivative markets worldwide, causing large losses at many financial institutions and bringing to light previously hidden unauthorized positions. Second, the rogue trader has returned to prominence due to domestic and international regulatory changes that have forced banks worldwide to focus more attention on operational risk, an important component of which is rogue trading.

Although critics have raised a number of objections to …

Learning From Our History: Evaluating The Modern Housing Finance Market In Light Of Ancient Principles Of Justice, Brian M. Mccall

Brian M McCall

Since I first accepted an invitation to join this symposium, the subprime mortgage crisis has exploded into a systemic financial crisis. Analysis and pundits alike seem on a quest to outdo each other in using dramatic phrases to describe its historic proportions. The causes of a crisis so large must have a multiplicity of causes lying in the realms of bank regulation and supervision, the operation and regulation of the securitization market and the derivatives and insurance markets. Yet, the root and spark of the various financial reverberations initiated in the home mortgage finance market. My presentation will focus on …

It's Just Secured Credit: The Natural Law Case In Defense Of Some Forms Of Secured Credit, Brian M. Mccall

Brian M McCall

For decades scholars have been debating whether of not the institution of security can be explained and justified. After much discussion from varying points of view and hermeneutics, although some insights have been gained, the answer to the original question remains unresolved. This article attempts to bring new life to this debate by building on Professors Mooney and Harris’ idea of security interest as property right while taking account of the valid concerns of scholars such as Elizabeth Warren and Lyn Lopucki that certain results produced by the current system seem unjust. This reconciliation of these two strands of secured …

Imagining Territories: Space, Place, And The Anticity, Jonathan Yovel

Jonathan Yovel

This essay explores the concept of "Territory" in some of its cultural forms, as well as looks into cultural and linguistic conditions for territories-talk. Initially, it engages territory as a pre-political representation and explores its formal relation to space and to place. It defines territory as the paradigmatic non-place and contrasts it with the concept of the city (in fact, an anticity), especially as reflected in renaissance and early modern art/architecture, with examples from Schedel, Bellini, Breugel and others, as well as from contemporary graphic works (Moebius, Qual, Nowak).

Moving from the cultural to the political, territories are then explored …

International Aspect Of The Global Financial Crisis, Robert B. Ahdieh

Robert B. Ahdieh

Invigorating The Role Of The In-House Legal Advisor Towards Ethical Culture And Governance In Client-Business Organizations: From 21st Century Failures To True Calling, Ben G. Pender Ii

Ben G Pender II

Invigorating the Role of the In-House Legal Advisor Towards Ethical Culture and Governance in Client-Business Organizations From 21st Century Failures to True Calling Ben G. Pender II J.D., University of St. Thomas School of Law, 2009 M.A. Sociology, Organizational Effectiveness, Clark Atlanta University, 1996. B.S., Sociology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1988. All Rights Reserved. © 2009. Summary This Article examines the need to invigorate the role of the in-house legal advisor from ‘mere legal technician’ to simultaneous legal advisory gatekeeper and ethical steward. This article asserts that the often-acquiescent in-house legal advisor as mere legal technician is partially …