Law Commons^™

Business Combination Antitakeover Statutes, The Unintended Repudiation Of The Internal Affairs Doctrine, And Constitutional Constraints On Choice Of Law, Robert E. Suggs

Robert E. Suggs

This article examines the constitutional validity of business combination antitakeover statutes. Delaware and other important corporate law jurisdictions enacted these statutes during the 1980s to inhibit hostile leveraged corporate takeovers and protect incumbent managements. These statutes work by prohibiting transactions which enable a hostile acquirer with a mere majority of target stock to sell target assets for cash and retain all the cash to service acquisition debt while paying off with securities the minority shareholders' interest in the assets sold. This allows the takeover to be financed with the assets acquired. Analyzing the structural operation of these statutes in greater …

Racial Discrimination In Business Transactions, Robert E. Suggs

Robert E. Suggs

When the Supreme Court invalidated a municipal minority business set-aside in City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., it failed to recognize the special circumstances confronting the minority entrepreneur. Contrary to the Court’s own erroneous assertion that “[s]tates and their local subdivisions have many legislative weapons at their disposal both to punish and prevent present [business] discrimination ….” – they do not. Nor can they create effective antidiscrimination remedies as a practical matter. As a result that decision leaves minority business owners vulnerable to discrimination from other business firms but without a remedy. Part I identifies the glaring failure of …

Rethinking Minority Business Development Strategies, Robert E. Suggs

Robert E. Suggs

Minority business set-asides were created as a prophylactic measure to redress discrimination against minority owned business firms. Predominantly minority jurisdictions found them especially attractive because they promised to provide minority firms a share of the procurement dollars expended by these jurisdictions. The Croson decision invalidated Richmond’s ordinance and posed substantial barriers to further enactments. This article proposes an alternative to such set-aides. It argues that the proposed alternative, an Equal Opportunity Rating Agency (EORA), provides a superior business development policy tool and does not have the constitutional vulnerabilities of set-asides. An EORA would operate much like a credit rating agency, …

Bonding Limited Liability, Robert J. Rhee

Robert Rhee

Limited liability is considered a “birthright” of corporations. The concept is entrenched in legal theory, and it is a fixed reality of the political economy. But it remains controversial. Scholarly debate has been engaged in absolute terms of defending the rule or advocating its abrogation. Though compelling, these polar positions, often expressed in abstract arguments, are associated with disquieting effects. Without limited liability, efficiency may be severely compromised. With it, involuntary tort creditors bear some of the cost of an enterprise. Most other proposals for reforming limited liability have been incremental, such as modifying veil piercing. However, neither absolutism nor …

Individual Liability Of Company Officers, Neil J. Foster

Neil J Foster

It has been recognised for some time that a key strategy in changing corporate behaviour is the possibility of personal liability being sheeted home to individual company officers. This paper argues for the desirability of laws imposing personal liability, discusses the operation of law imposing such liability in the law of occupational health and safety in the UK, and compares that law with the operation of similar law in another common law jurisdiction, the Australian State of New South Wales. It is hoped that the comparison and review of the fairly extensive case law which has developed under the NSW …

Anti-Doping Suspensions And Restraint Of Trade In Sport, Annette Greenhow

Annette Greenhow

The regulator of doping in sport seeks to preserve the spirit of sport and act as the paternalistic protector of the sports participant. But sanctions originally designed to stop drug cheats using artificial performance enhancers in Olympic competition have expanded to cover the use of recreational drugs. There is emerging support for the view that the penalty must fit the crime and that governing bodies must ensure that their legitimate interests outweigh the detriment to the athlete. With doping sanctions imposed for the use of recreational drugs, a restraint of trade claim has prospects of success on the basis of …

Devilry, Complicity, And Greed: Transitional Justice And Odious Debt, David C. Gray

David C. Gray

The doctrine of odious debts came into its full in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century to deal with the financial injustices of colonialism and its stalking horse, despotism. The basic rule, as articulated by Alexander Sack in 1927, is that debts incurred by an illegitimate regime that neither benefit nor have the consent of the people of a territory are personal to the regime and are subject to unilateral recision by a successor government. While the traditional doctrine focused on the nature and circumstances of individual debts, it has been expanded in recent years, moving the focus from the …

The Madoff Scandal, Market Regulatory Failure And The Business Education Of Lawyers, Robert J. Rhee

Robert Rhee

This essay suggests that a deficiency in legal education is a contributing cause of the regulatory failure. The most scandalous malfeasance of this new era, the Madoff Ponzi scheme, evinces the failure of improperly trained lawyers and regulators. It also calls into question whether the prevailing regulatory philosophy of disclosure of disclosure is sufficient in a complex market. This essay answers an important question underlying these considerations: What can legal education do to better train business lawyers and regulators for a market that is becoming more complex? One answer, it suggests, is a simple one: law schools should teach a …

Corporate Ethics, Agency, And The Theory Of The Firm, Robert J. Rhee

Robert Rhee

This conference paper suggests that the problem of corporate ethics cannot be reduced to the autonomous person. Although the greatest influence on action and choice is one's moral constitution, it does not follow that the agent's behavior is the same within or without the firm. Ethics is a function of corporate form. The theory of agency cannot dismiss the firm as a fiction or metaphorical shorthand since that which does not exist should not be able to cause ethical breakdowns in corporate action. Thus, the theory of the firm, which emphasizes profit and wealth maximization, should incorporate a richer, more …

Bonding Limited Liability, Robert J. Rhee

Robert Rhee

Limited liability is considered a “birthright” of corporations. The concept is entrenched in legal theory, and it is a fixed reality of the political economy. But it remains controversial. Scholarly debate has been engaged in absolute terms of defending the rule or advocating its abrogation. Though compelling, these polar positions, often expressed in abstract arguments, are associated with disquieting effects. Without limited liability, efficiency may be severely compromised. With it, involuntary tort creditors bear some of the cost of an enterprise. Most other proposals for reforming limited liability have been incremental, such as modifying veil piercing. However, neither absolutism nor …

Resisting A Hostile Takeover: The Lion Nathan Bid For Coopers Brewery, John P.G. Lessing, Renaee Johns

John Lessing

Lion Nathan Ltd (Lion Nathan), Australia’s second largest brewer, through its subsidiary Lion Nathan Australia Pty Ltd (LNA), on 1 September 2005 launched a hostile takeover of Coopers Brewery Limited (hereafter ‘Coopers’). What followed was one of the most fascinating and vigorously contested takeover battles in Australian corporate history. As a case study, it raises a range of corporate law issues including directors’ duties, oppression, share buy-backs, experts’ reports, use of preemption clauses and the interpretation of a company’s constitution. This paper provides an overview of the tactics adopted by both sides during this lengthy battle. It also discusses the …

The Legislature Strikes Back: The Effect Of Ontario’S Bill 152 On The Beneficiaries Of The Statutory Duty Of Care In The Peoples Decision, Darcy L. Macpherson

Darcy L MacPherson

No abstract provided.

Comparative Law – Preparatory Study Group Report, Evgenia Pavlovskaia

Evgenia Pavlovskaia

The paper highlights important aspects of comparative law and comparative research. It gives rise to such questions as the relevance of comparative law for legal research, how much comparative law should be involved in legal research, and whether we perform a comparative study when we analyze the EU law in relation to national law.

Revisiting The Battle Of The Forms: A Case Study Approach To Legal Strategy Development, Mary J. Shariff, Kevin Marechal De Charteret

Mary J. Shariff

The area of contract law described as the battle of the forms is a perfect example of an area of law where the legal rules and their application are complex, contradictory, and/or inconsistently applied. Indeed, the battle of the forms problem has been recognized as among the most “difficult problems for contract doctrine to resolve” and in some jurisdictions, has been described as “chaos” thus increasing opportunities for the strategic manipulation of the law. The classic battle of the forms typically arises when a buyer and seller exchange conflicting standard forms and commence performance of the contract. The parties appear …

Disability Through The Eyes Of The Law: A Review Of Federalism, Democracy And Disability Policy In Canada, Darcy L. Macpherson

Darcy L MacPherson

This piece reviews Federalism, Democracy and Disability Policy in Canada, an edited collection of essays dealing with various aspect of disability policy issues through the lens of the relationship between the levels of government in Canada

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 …

Cyber Crimes And Effectiveness Of Laws In India To Control Them, Mubashshir Sarshar

Mubashshir Sarshar

No abstract provided.

Corporations Are People Too: A Multi-Dimensional Approach To The Corporate Personhood Puzzle, Susanna K. Ripken

Susanna K. Ripken

The recent controversy over the billions of dollars authorized by Congress to bail out some of the nation’s largest corporations has illuminated a debate about the nature and role of corporations in our society. This debate involves fundamental questions about what or who it is exactly we are trying to save with bailout money. Has the corporation’s presence become such an integral part of our lives that its status obligates us to treat it as a “person” worth saving. Legal theorists have long puzzled over the nature of the corporate person and the value of calling the corporation a person …

Of The World Trade Court's Burden, Sungjoon Cho

Sungjoon Cho

No abstract provided.

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 …

Corporations Are People Too: A Multi-Dimensional Approach To The Corporate Personhood Puzzle, Susanna K. Ripken

Susanna K. Ripken

The recent controversy over the billions of dollars authorized by Congress to bail out some of the nation’s largest corporations has illuminated a debate about the nature and role of corporations in our society. This debate involves fundamental questions about what or who it is exactly we are trying to save with bailout money. Has the corporation’s presence become such an integral part of our lives that its status obligates us to treat it as a “person” worth saving. Legal theorists have long puzzled over the nature of the corporate person and the value of calling the corporation a person …

What Ngo Accountability Means - And Does Not Mean, Kenneth Anderson

Kenneth Anderson

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 …