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Full-Text Articles in Law

Whom Is Corporate Esg Integration For?, Ryan Brennan Dec 2023

Whom Is Corporate Esg Integration For?, Ryan Brennan

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Notions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and more recently, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) have found their way into the boardrooms of the world’s largest corporations. The prominence of this trend has revived the timeless debate over the true function of for-profit business. Traditional theory calls for a corporation to maximize shareholder’s profits—a view known as “shareholder primacy.” A competing contemporary school of thought finds that corporate purpose naturally extends beyond generating return on the investment of a given shareholder to reflect social objectives and the many dependent constituents of a business. As it stands, US corporate law tracks the …


Corporate Compliance's Achilles Heel, Miriam Baer Jul 2023

Corporate Compliance's Achilles Heel, Miriam Baer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Entire Fairness Or Bust: The Burst Of The 2020-2021 Spac Bubble, Nicole Lynch May 2023

Entire Fairness Or Bust: The Burst Of The 2020-2021 Spac Bubble, Nicole Lynch

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) have skyrocketed in recent years as an alternative for taking private companies public through an initial public offering (IPO). SPACs are blank-check companies that raise capital through public exchanges for the “special purpose” of acquiring a privately held company. Once acquired, the private company will take the SPAC’s place on the public exchange, effectively accomplishing the same thing as a traditional IPO but without all the onerous reporting requirements and upfront costs. For these reasons, SPACs have become the next big thing in securities markets despite being around since the 1990s. Throughout 2020 and 2021, …


Square-Peg Frauds, Miriam Baer Jan 2023

Square-Peg Frauds, Miriam Baer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Protecting Corporations From Discrimination Under The Convention On The Elimination Of Racial Discrimination, William Thomas Worster Dec 2022

Protecting Corporations From Discrimination Under The Convention On The Elimination Of Racial Discrimination, William Thomas Worster

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

This article argues that legal persons derive rights under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and can enforce those rights by individual or inter-state complaint. It uses the case study of media corporations, following from the recent judgment by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the litigation between Qatar and the UAE over the application of CERD to the treatment of the Al Jazeera media corporation. However, the implications of this study apply to all private corporations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The CERD protects against certain forms of racial, ethnic and national origin …


Golden Shares And Social Enterprise, Naveen Thomas Jul 2022

Golden Shares And Social Enterprise, Naveen Thomas

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Forecasting The How And Why Of Corporate Crime's Demise, Miriam H. Baer Jul 2022

Forecasting The How And Why Of Corporate Crime's Demise, Miriam H. Baer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


How Discretionary Decision-Making Impacts The Financial Performance And Legal Disclosures Of S&P 500 Funds, Bernard S. Sharfman, Vincent Deluard Apr 2022

How Discretionary Decision-Making Impacts The Financial Performance And Legal Disclosures Of S&P 500 Funds, Bernard S. Sharfman, Vincent Deluard

Brooklyn Law Review

When investment funds track the S&P 500, the index becomes more than just a list of 500 companies. The focus then becomes the financial and regulatory issues that arise from the discretionary decision-making power of the Index Committee that governs the S&P 500. Based on our empirical research and analysis, this article recommends a new principal risk disclosure under SEC Form N-1A, which we refer to as “selection risk,” to be included in the statutory and summary prospectuses of investment funds that track the S&P 500. This type of risk results when the Index Committee uses its discretionary decision-making power …


Third Time’S The Charm: Remedying The Lack Of Uniformity And Predictability In Trade Secret Law, Matthew D. Kasner Feb 2022

Third Time’S The Charm: Remedying The Lack Of Uniformity And Predictability In Trade Secret Law, Matthew D. Kasner

Brooklyn Law Review

The current legal framework governing trade secrets in the United States lacks the uniformity and predictability necessary to protect businesses. As a result, trade secret litigation has been on the rise over the course of the last decade. Whilst remote work becomes more ubiquitous, even beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, litigation will continue to increase as businesses are forced to entrust confidential information with remote workers. This note examines the current US trade secret scheme, exposes the current framework’s deficiencies, and suggests a “trade secret formalities model” to make for a more organized and efficient doctrine of law. More specifically, this …


Fit For Its Ordinary Purpose: Implied Warranties And Common Law Duties For Consumer Finance Contracts, Edward J. Janger, Susan Block-Lieb Jan 2022

Fit For Its Ordinary Purpose: Implied Warranties And Common Law Duties For Consumer Finance Contracts, Edward J. Janger, Susan Block-Lieb

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Roberta Karmel And The "Brooklyn School", Edward J. Janger Dec 2021

Roberta Karmel And The "Brooklyn School", Edward J. Janger

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

In this contribution, Professor Janger describes Roberta Karmel’s extraordinary contributions to the intellectual, scholarly, and institutional life of Brooklyn Law School.


“The Eu Challenge To The Sec”: A View From 2021, Howell E. Jackson Dec 2021

“The Eu Challenge To The Sec”: A View From 2021, Howell E. Jackson

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

This essay offers a retrospective appreciation of Professor Roberta Karmel’s scholarship exploring the influence of securities regulation in the United States on developments in European capital markets regulation in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Professor Karmel’s writings document a fascinating evolution in this trans-Atlantic relationship as the Securities and Exchange Commission transitioned from the world’s dominant capital market regulator throughout most of the post-World War II era into a more collaborative posture by the end of the first decade of the Millennium. The essay concludes by suggesting that the trends that Professor Karmel chronicled in her scholarship have persisted …


Full Of Questions And Wonder: Roberta Karmel's Legacy, Alan R. Palmiter Dec 2021

Full Of Questions And Wonder: Roberta Karmel's Legacy, Alan R. Palmiter

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Roberta Karmel has been perhaps the keenest observer and commentator on the securities industry and its regulation for the past five decades. Her observations about securities regulation—during the SEC’s precocious adolescence and into its young adulthood—have framed the academic inquiry of all of us who have written on the subject during this period. But more valuable to us than her observations have been her questions, full of wonder and penetrating insight. We securities academics, the enterprise of securities regulation, and especially market capitalism, all owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Professor Karmel.


Telling The Story On Your Timesheets: A Fee Examiner's Tips For Creditors' Lawyers And Bankruptcy Estate Professionals, Nancy B. Rapoport May 2021

Telling The Story On Your Timesheets: A Fee Examiner's Tips For Creditors' Lawyers And Bankruptcy Estate Professionals, Nancy B. Rapoport

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

This short (approx. 5,000 words) essay, which forms the basis of a keynote address to the Federal Bar Association that I’m doing next month, discusses how much of a lawyer’s embedded assumptions and cognitive errors can come across in something as simple as a time entry on a bill. So much can be revealed about how a lawyer views himself or herself in society and about the lawyer’s relationship with the client that it’s worth examining what we can find when we look at legal bills. One note, though: my writing style is informal and distinctive in that regard (especially …


A Rejection Of Absolutist Duties As A Barrier To Creditor Protection: Facilitating Directorial Decisivness Surrounding Insolvency Through The Business Judgment Rule, Philip Gavin May 2021

A Rejection Of Absolutist Duties As A Barrier To Creditor Protection: Facilitating Directorial Decisivness Surrounding Insolvency Through The Business Judgment Rule, Philip Gavin

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

This Article draws attention to the difficulties that directors may face when seeking to discharge their duties as a corporation approaches insolvency, in particular when directors must discern the point at which a corporation has become insolvent. It argues that discretion allowed to directors by the business judgment rule will be crucial to overcoming these difficulties. To do this, this article examines the nature of duties owed by directors both before and after insolvency, and accepts the stance taken by Delaware courts in recent years towards an expansive understanding of a corporation’s interests upon insolvency. It then considers unresolved issues …


Qualified Opportunity Funds: Private Equity Exemptions From Public Responsibility, Audrey E. Abate May 2021

Qualified Opportunity Funds: Private Equity Exemptions From Public Responsibility, Audrey E. Abate

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

The historic Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), passed and signed into law in 2017, included a pilot program of a new kind of tax advantage: the Qualified Opportunity Zone. The obscure provision has since spawned novel investment vehicles, called Qualified Opportunity Funds, through which qualified individuals and entities participate in what are often significant tax advantages, including deferral of capital gains for up to ten years. Because Qualified Opportunity Funds have come into existence so recently, regulation has been slow to catch up to the ways in which this tax program is rapidly attracting capital from private equity, investment …


Proxy Advisors As Issue Spotters, Douglas Sarro May 2021

Proxy Advisors As Issue Spotters, Douglas Sarro

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

When institutional investors hire proxy advisors to prepare reports on matters up for vote at public company shareholder meetings, are they interested primarily in acquiring a bottom-line recommendation on how to vote, on which they can then blindly rely? Or in acquiring information that will help them make their own voting decisions? Supporters of controversial reforms introduced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2019 and 2020 gravitate toward the former position, arguing that reform is needed to discourage undue reliance on proxy advisor recommendations. Opponents gravitate toward the latter position, arguing that additional regulation generally is unnecessary given …


Reducing Conflicts Of Interest: A "Glass-Steagall" Split Of Advisory And Consulting Services Of Proxy Advisory Firms, Austin Manna May 2021

Reducing Conflicts Of Interest: A "Glass-Steagall" Split Of Advisory And Consulting Services Of Proxy Advisory Firms, Austin Manna

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

This Note explores a solution to the potential problem with proxy advisory firms that involves an inherent conflict of interest arising from the structure of two services—advisory and consulting services—offered at certain proxy advisory firms in the United States. The solution proposed in this paper applies a Glass-Steagall framework to breakup these two services of the proxy advisory firms. In theory, this would eliminate the inherent conflicts of interest.


Let's Stop Playing Games: Why Better Congressional Interaction Is Required To Protect Young Gamers, Dominick Tarantino May 2021

Let's Stop Playing Games: Why Better Congressional Interaction Is Required To Protect Young Gamers, Dominick Tarantino

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

This Note addresses the predatory nature of video game microtransactions, the serious risks they pose, and why an improved plan of legislative intervention is necessary to protect young, vulnerable video game consumers. With loot box microtransactions driving a flourishing industry that has reached unprecedented levels of success, adequate consumer protection cannot properly be achieved through self-regulation. Senator Josh Hawley’s Protecting Children from Abusive Games Act is a step in the right direction, but its broad language will result in unintended consequences that can cripple the entire industry. Revising the bill’s language will protect the intended young consumer and allow for …


Follow-Up Enforcement, Andrew K. Jennings Apr 2021

Follow-Up Enforcement, Andrew K. Jennings

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Pernicious Loyalty, Andrew S. Gold Mar 2021

Pernicious Loyalty, Andrew S. Gold

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Looking Forward: Professor Roberta Karmel's Prescient Views On The Transformation Of Self-Regulatory Organizations And Of The Securities Market Structure At The Turn Of The Last Century, James Fanto Jan 2021

Looking Forward: Professor Roberta Karmel's Prescient Views On The Transformation Of Self-Regulatory Organizations And Of The Securities Market Structure At The Turn Of The Last Century, James Fanto

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Symposium Introduction: A Tribute To Roberta Karmel, James Fanto Jan 2021

Symposium Introduction: A Tribute To Roberta Karmel, James Fanto

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


The Professionalization Of Compliance: Its Progress, Impediments, And Outcomes, James A. Fanto Jan 2021

The Professionalization Of Compliance: Its Progress, Impediments, And Outcomes, James A. Fanto

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Lending Innovations, Xuan-Thao Nguyen Dec 2020

Lending Innovations, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Brooklyn Law Review

This article is about innovations. Startups and their founders in the innovation intensive sectors cannot reach their dreams without financing. They cannot turn to banks for loans. Banks, from community to commercial banks, shun startups due to antiquated banking law, business model and high risks associated with tech lending. But there are outlier banks who disrupt the banking business model with lending innovation, fueling startups with loans that allow tech innovations to occur from Silicon Valley to Route 128 of the northeast corridor, and from Shanghai, China to Herzliya, Israel. With qualitative and quantitative patent data, this article demonstrates how …


The Regulatory Production Of Vaccine Hesitancy, Eugene Mccarthy Dec 2020

The Regulatory Production Of Vaccine Hesitancy, Eugene Mccarthy

Brooklyn Law Review

This article argues that U.S. vaccine law produces the “anti-vax” movement. The anti-vax movement is a growing problem, as more than half of American parents have concerns about vaccinating their children. Remarkably, these “vaccine-hesitant” individuals tend to be highly educated, wealthy, and experienced parents. Three legal structures cause vaccine hesitancy: strict immunization mandates, lax regulatory oversight, and blanket limited liability for vaccine manufacturers. The United States stands alone with regard to its vaccine mandates—no other developed democracy requires its citizens to receive such a large number of childhood vaccines. Meanwhile, the law permits financial conflicts of interest in vaccine approval …


Directors’ Duty Of Care In Times Of Financial Distress Following The Global Epidemic Crisis, Leon Yehuda Anidjar Dec 2020

Directors’ Duty Of Care In Times Of Financial Distress Following The Global Epidemic Crisis, Leon Yehuda Anidjar

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The global COVID-19 pandemic is causing the large-scale end of life and severe human suffering globally. This massive public health crisis created a significant economic crisis and is reflected in a recession of global production and the collapse of confidence in the functions of markets. Corporations and boards of directors around the world are required to design specific strategies to tackle the negative consequences of the crisis. This is especially true for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that suffered tremendous economic loss, and their continued existence as ongoing concern is under considerable risk. Given these uncertain financial times, this Article …


Symposium: Consumer Welfare Market Structure And Political Power, Edward J. Janger Dec 2020

Symposium: Consumer Welfare Market Structure And Political Power, Edward J. Janger

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Two competing visions dominate the fields of antitrust and consumer protection: neo-liberal and progressive. The neo-classical approach is associated with Robert Bork and the Law and Economics Movement. The progressive strand is older, identified with Brandeis and early 20th Century social reform. As a matter of chronology the Brandeisian view dominated into the 1970s, but from 1980, until recently, the Borkian law and economics approach has been in ascendancy in Congress, the academy, and in the courts. Technological change and events in the broader economy have caused the politics and the academic focus to shift. The financial crisis of 2008-09 …


Your Uber Driver Is Here, But Their Benefits Are Not: The Abc Test, Assembly Bill 5, And Regulating Gig Economy Employers, Brian A. Brown Ii Dec 2020

Your Uber Driver Is Here, But Their Benefits Are Not: The Abc Test, Assembly Bill 5, And Regulating Gig Economy Employers, Brian A. Brown Ii

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

In September 2019, California passed Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5) which adopts the ABC test as the standard for determining whether an individual worker is an employee or an independent contractor. This legislation is aimed at gig economy employers, such as Uber, whose workers are arguably misclassified as independent contractors, ultimately denying them access to benefits and the ability to unionize. This Note will discuss AB 5 by identifying the successes and pitfalls of the legislation. While AB 5 is a step in the right direction, the bill still needs to be refined to avoid gaps in enforcement. Further, this …


Cyber-Insecurity: The Reasonableness Standard In Internet Of Things Device Regulation And Why Technical Standards Are Better Equipped To Combat Cybercrime, Chynna Rose Foucek Dec 2020

Cyber-Insecurity: The Reasonableness Standard In Internet Of Things Device Regulation And Why Technical Standards Are Better Equipped To Combat Cybercrime, Chynna Rose Foucek

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

While the Internet of Things (IoT) has created an interconnected world via phones, laptops, and even household devices, it is not infallible. As cyber-attacks increase in frequency, affecting companies of all sizes and industries, IoT device manufacturers have become particularly vulnerable, due in large part to the fact that many companies fail to implement adequate cybersecurity protocols. Mass data breaches occur often. However, these companies are not held accountable due to the use of the reasonableness standard in existing cybersecurity legislation, which is flexible and malleable. In 2019, the California Legislature enacted a cybersecurity law specific to IoT device manufacturers. …