Law Commons^™

Wireless Investors & Apathy Obsolescence, Sergio Alberto Gramitto Ricci, Christina M. Sautter

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Article discusses how a subgenre of retail investors makes investors’ apathy obsolete. In prior work, we dub this genre of retail investors “wireless investors” for their reliance on technology and online communications. By applying game theory, this Article discusses how wireless investors’ global-scale online communications allow them to circulate information and coordinate, obliterating collective action problems.

The Most Important Decision In Federal Securities Law - Texas Gulf Sulphur, Marc I. Steinberg

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Although decided 55 years ago, the Second Circuit’s decision in Texas Gulf Sulphur may be viewed as the most important case under the U.S. securities laws. The decision addressed several landmark issues, including insider trading, company disclosure obligations, and the concept of materiality. Although a number of its rulings subsequently were rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, others remain good law today. From a comparative perspective, Texas Gulf Sulphur also is a significant decision. Many of the principles enunciated by the Second Circuit in that decision today have been adopted by developed securities markets outside of the United States.

Business Associations, Scott Lowry

Scholarly Works

This Article surveys a selection of noteworthy cases involving business associations that Georgia courts decided between June 1, 2022 and May 31, 2023. This Article also briefly highlights the 2023 update to the Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code, sections 14-3-101–1703 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, which was signed by Governor Kemp on May 2, 2023, and took effect on July 1, 2023.

Promise & Peril Of Plain English: Mutual Fund Disclosure Readability, Anne M. Tucker, Yusen Xia

Scholarly Works

The SEC requires mutual funds to write disclosures for the average investor using plain English. These requirements make funds’ investment strategies and associated risks transparent and accessible to investors. Improved investor understanding furthers the SEC’s regulation-through-disclosure regime. But our examination of funds’ summary prospectuses—an abbreviated discussion of a fund’s strategies and risks—suggests that funds often fail to meet the plain English standard. Our analysis of all summary prospectuses filed between 2010 and 2020 reveals that mutual funds write long, hard-to-read, and complex disclosures. Importantly, we find that failure to draft disclosures in plain English is more than a technical error. …

Changemakers: 'Hard Work, Determination, And Dedication': Arya Omshehe, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Shareholder Inspection Rights: From Credible Basis To Rational Belief, Lynn Bai

Emory Business Law Review

Jurisdictions are split on the standard of proof for shareholder inspection lawsuits when inspections are for the purpose of investigating managerial misconduct. Delaware and its followers apply a credible basis standard that calls for extrinsic evidence, beyond mere suspicion, curiosity, or disagreement with management, to permit an inference of misconduct. A minority of jurisdictions require shareholders to show merely a rational belief that mismanagement likely happened. Rational belief can be satisfied by sound logic without referencing extrinsic evidence. The Delaware Supreme Court rejected rational belief for fear that a permissive standard would lead to a cascade of frivolous inspections, although …

United We Stand, Divided We Fall: A Survey Of Current Public And Private Initiatives Addressing Board Diversity & A Proposed Sec Diversity Disclosure To Help Increase Board Diversity, Gabrielle Hunter

Emory Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Director Liability To Officer Liability To Esg Caremark Claims: A Natural Evolution?, Gareth Mchugh

Emory Business Law Review

With the McDonald’s decision, officers and directors could face Caremark liability for the first time, and this decision could also lead to an influx of ESG-based Caremark claims in Delaware Courts. This Comment explains that, while ESG Caremark claims would force corporations to adopt ESG oversight systems to avoid liability, the very political, social, and legal environment that created a growing call for ESG Caremark claims presents a beneficial opportunity for corporations to appeal to consumers and investors by proactively adopting ESG oversight systems. Corporations are at a nexus where they can either willingly adopt ESG oversight systems and reap …

40 Acres And A Mule: Accountability For Corporations To Provide Reparations To Historically Black Colleges And Universities For Profits From Slave Labor, Meghan K. Marks

Emory Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Inherently Incompatible: The Irreconcilable Tension Between Corporate Negligence Claims And The Federal Tort Claims Act, Veronica J. Finkelstein

Emory Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Restraining The Heartless: Erosion Of Corporate Liability Under The Alien Tort Statute And The Path Forward For Victims Seeking Redress, Alexa M. Duffy

American University Law Review

The Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”) is a U.S. federal law dating back to 1789 that allows non-U.S. citizens to file civil lawsuits in federal courts against individuals or entities for alleged international law violations. While originally interpreted to address piracy and the safeguarding of foreign diplomats, the ATS gained new relevance in the late twentieth century when it was used to hold individuals and corporations accountable for human rights abuses committed abroad, making it a critical tool in seeking justice for human rights violations.

This Comment argues that there is no longer a realistic federal forum for ATS suits against …

A Contractual Relationship With Environmental Justice, Seema Kakade

American University Law Review

While corporations have long grappled with environmental issues, environmental justice is different. Corporations regularly manage compliance with environmental permits over a polluting facility’s long lifespan. Justice issues, however, are a fast-growing space for corporations as they wrestle with employee, government, customer, and public demands to step up for the communities that are directly impacted by the pollution their facilities produce. This Article explores the relationship between corporate polluters and impacted communities, with a focus on private-ordering tools like contracts. Such a focus enriches environmental justice law’s traditional focus on government decisionmakers, moving instead to corporate decision-making about where, how, and …

Regulatory Innovation And Permission To Fail: The Case Of Suptech, Hilary J. Allen

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision West Virginia v. EPA has cast a pall over the discretion of administrative agencies at a very inopportune time. The private sector is currently adopting new technologies at a rapid pace, and as regulated industries become more technologically complex, administrative agencies must innovate technological tools of their own in order to keep up. Agencies will increasingly struggle to do their jobs without that innovation, but the private sector is afforded something that is both critical to the innovation process, and often denied to administrative agencies: “permission to fail.” Without some grace for the inevitable …

The S.E.C.'S Unconstitutionally Compelled Speech, Steven J. Cleveland

Faculty Articles

Congress delegated to the Securities & Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) the regulation of the sale and trading of securities as well as the solicitation of proxies. The S.E.C. compels disclosure by involved parties to ensure that investors can make informed decisions regarding their trades and the exercise of voting rights with respect to their securities. Such important governmental interests routinely leave one without basis to challenge the compelled speech imposed by the S.E.C. Because it generally can compel speech by parties involved in securities transactions and the solicitation of proxies, the S.E.C. is insensitive to situations when legitimate First Amendment issues …

Stark Choices For Corporate Reform, Aneil Kovvali

Articles by Maurer Faculty

For decades, corporate law scholars insisted on a simple division of responsibilities. Corporations were told to focus exclusively on maximizing financial returns to shareholders while the government tended to all other concerns by adopting new regulations. As reformers challenged this orthodoxy by urging corporations to take action on pressing social problems, defenders of the status quo have responded by suggesting that these efforts could be dangerous. In their view, internal corporate governance reforms could interfere with the adoption of external governmental regulations that would be more effective. The hypothesis that reformers face a stark choice between pursuing internal corporate changes …

Regulating The Corporate Governance Of State-Owned Enterprises In Investment Arbitration, Mark Mclaughlin

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The renaissance of sovereign investment is one of the defining economic trends of the 21st century. While many states have benefitted, and continue to benefit, from an influx of state-backed foreign investment, this embrace is not without its hesitancies. Host states are particularly concerned that state-owned enterprises (SOE s) pursue non-commercial policy objectives, maintain lower levels of transparency than their private counterparts, and operate with inferior standards of responsible business conduct. In response, domestic regulators have enacted a series of countermeasures for SOE investment, including requirements that such enterprises must invest on a “commercial basis.” However, the regulation of foreign …

Strengthening China's Response To Economic Losses Caused Byship Oil Pollution: Advancing Compensation Mechanisms, Meiyi Gai

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

China's oil pollution compensation system, established relatively late, has an imperfect legal framework, leading to numerous issues in claim settlements. Frequent oil pollution incidents significantly damage its marine ecosystem and harm affected parties. Despite initial efforts, China's compensation framework is less effective than those of developed countries. This paper examines the current challenges in China's compensation mechanism for ship oil pollution damage, drawing lessons from Canada and the United States, and proposing improvements. Through a comprehensive literature review and comparative analysis, the study identifies legislative strengths and weaknesses, aiming to improve China's system by adopting a dual-track compensation mechanism that …

A Comparative Analysis Of Medical Malpractice Law In Telemedicine Between Thailand And Germany, Surusvadee Viravud

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

ในประเทศไทยและเยอรมนี การแพทย์ทางไกลได้กลายเป็นส่วนสำคัญในการดูแลสุขภาพของประชาชนทั่วไป การบริการทางการแพทย์นี้มีความสำคัญอย่างยิ่งหลังการแพร่ระบาดของโรคโควิด-19 ไปทั่วโลก การบริการการแพทย์ทางไกลมีประโยชน์หลายประการทั้งการเข้าถึงการบริการด้านสุขภาพที่เพิ่มมากขึ้น ตลอดจนส่งเสริมความสามารถในการให้บริการด้านสุขภาพของผู้ให้บริการทางการแพทย์ อย่างไรก็ตาม การแพทย์ทางไกลได้ก่อให้เกิดความท้าทายทางด้านกฎหมาย โดยเฉพาะประเด็นที่เกี่ยวข้องกับเรื่องการทุรเวชปฏิบัติทางการแพทย์ทางไกลโดยเจ้าหน้าที่ทางการแพทย์และผู้ให้บริการการแพทย์ทางไกลซึ่งมีรูปแบบและลักษณะแตกต่างจากการให้บริการทางการแพทย์แบบดั้งเดิมปัจจุบัน การให้บริการการแพทย์ทางไกลโดยแพทย์ที่ได้รับใบอนุญาตนั้นจะต้องทำตามหลักเกณฑ์ตามประกาศแพทยสภา ฉบับที่ 54/2563 ซึ่งได้กำหนดความหมายของคำว่า “การแพทย์ทางไกล" ไว้เป็นการเฉพาะ และยังปรากฏว่ามีออกประกาศกระทรวงสาธารณสุขเรื่องมาตรฐานสำหรับสถานพยาบาลที่ใช้ระบบบริการการแพทย์ทางไกล พ.ศ. 2564 เพื่อกำกับดูแลการให้บริการการแพทย์ทางไกลของผู้ให้บริการสถานพยาบาล อย่างไรก็ตาม ยังไม่ปรากฏว่ามีกฎหมายที่เกี่ยวข้องกับการเรียกค่าสินไหมทดแทนจากทุรเวชปฏิบัติด้านการแพทย์ทางไกลไว้โดยเฉพาะเจาะจง การบาดเจ็บที่เกิดจากการกระทำทุรเวชปฏิบัติทางการแพทย์ที่เกิดขึ้นในกรณีการแพทย์ทางไกลจะอยู่ภายใต้มาตรา 420 ของประมวลกฎหมายแพ่งและพาณิชย์ของประเทศไทย เช่นเดียวกับกรณีการกระทำทุรเวชปฏิบัติทางการแพทย์เช่นเดียวกับการแพทย์แบบดั้งเดิมงานวิจัยนี้พบว่าภาระการพิสูจน์ของผู้ที่ได้รับบาดเจ็บภายใต้กรอบของกฎหมายการละเมิดทั่วไป ส่งผลให้ผู้ที่รับบริการการแพทย์ทางไกลมีภาระในการพิสูจน์เช่นว่านี้มากเกินสมควร เมื่อเปรียบเทียบกับระบบกฎหมายไทย ระบบกฎหมายของประเทศเยอรมนีได้สร้างกลไกที่เป็นระบบมาใช้เพื่อช่วยให้ผู้ให้บริการการแพทย์ทางไกลมีความรับผิดชอบต่อการบาดเจ็บนั้นมากขึ้นและคุ้มครองฝ่ายผู้รับบริการได้มากขึ้นในกรณีทุรเวชปฏิบัติในกิจการการแพทย์ทางไกล โดยงานวิจัยนี้มุ่งเน้นไปที่การเปรียบเทียบแนวปฏิบัติของศาลเกี่ยวกับกรณีทุรเวชปฏิบัติทางการแพทย์ระหว่างประเทศไทยและเยอรมนี และชี้ให้เห็นความแตกต่างและประเด็นที่อาจนำเอามาปรับปรุง แนวทางการปฏิบัติของศาลเยอรมนีเป็นตัวอย่างหนึ่งของแนวทางที่ครอบคลุมและแสดงออกถึงการใช้กลไกทางกฎหมายที่ซับซ้อนเพื่อรับรองความปลอดภัยของผู้ป่วยผู้รับบริการและสร้างความรับผิดชอบให้แก่ผู้ให้บริการเพื่อจัดการกับความท้าทายทางกฎหมายในด้านการแพทย์ทางไกล ประเทศไทยสามารถนำแนวทางปฏิบัติจากกรอบกฎหมายของประเทศเยอรมนีมาปรับใช้เพื่อลดภาระการพิสูจน์สำหรับผู้ป่วยและรับรองความรับผิดของผู้ให้บริการด้านการแพทย์ทางไกล เพื่อส่งเสริมความปลอดภัยของผู้ป่วยผู้รับบริการและการรักษาสิทธิของผู้ป่วยในกรณีที่อาจมีการเรียกร้องค่าเสียหายจากการรักษาพยาบาลของผู้ให้บริการการแพทย์ทางไกลในประเทศไทย และเพื่อรับประกันความปลอดภัยและความเป็นอยู่ที่ดีของผู้ป่วยผู้รับบริการการแพทย์ทางไกลในประเทศไทยมากกว่าปัจจุบัน

Challenges Of An Implementation And Enforcement Of Child Safety Seat Law In Thailand, Narisara Pan-Ngam

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

In Thailand, car accidents are the second leading cause of death among children. According to the Child Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Research Center (CSIP), in 2019, automobile accidents killed approximately 2500 children aged 1 to 14 years old per year, or 250 children each month on average. Most of the children who died in auto accidents were not wearing seat belts at the time of the crash.Generally, essential safety devices in the car are seatbelts and airbags, which will protect the passengers from fatal injuries when the car crashes. Unfortunately, seatbelt only grants the appropriate protection for adult passengers …

Is Corporate Law Nonpartisan?, Ofer Eldar, Gabriel V. Rauterberg

Faculty Scholarship

Only rarely does the United States Supreme Court hear a case with fundamental implications for corporate law. In Camey v. Adams, however, the Supreme Court had the opportunity to address whether the State of Delaware's requirement of partisan balance for its judiciary violates the First Amendment. Although the Court disposed of the case on other grounds, Justice Sotomayor acknowledged that the issue "will likely be raised again." The stakes are high because most large businesses are incorporated in Delaware and thus are governed by its corporate law. Former Delaware governors and chief justices lined up to defend the state's "nonpartisan" …

Corporate Governance And Risk-Taking: A Statistical Approach, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

Because prudent corporate governance often requires managers to take risks based on statistically expected outcomes, corporate failures that have a small but finite chance of occurring cannot always be prevented. This Article makes three related claims about risk-taking in corporate governance.

This Article’s first claim is that managers should not automatically be presumed to be at fault for corporate failures that result from risk-taking decisions based on statistical methodologies that reasonably justify the decisions ex ante. Conceptually, the business judgment rule should protect corporate managers for engaging in a reasonable decision-making process, including one that is statistically based. Jurisdictionally, however, …

Independence Reconceived, Claire Hill, Yaron Nili

Faculty Scholarship

What makes a director independent? Scholars, regulators, and investors have grappled for decades with the fleeting notion of director independence. Originally conceived as guardians of shareholder interests that could safeguard a corporate board’s ability to check management’s power, independent directors have become a marquee feature of modern corporate governance. But do the corporate actions of directors that are considered “independent” under current standards comport with what we think independence requires? In many cases, the answer would seem to be “no.” From a lack of observable financial impact to the unabated flow of corporate scandals, independent directors seem to keep failing …

Side Letter Governance, Elisabeth De Fontenay, Yaron Nili

Faculty Scholarship

A standard feature of the private equity industry, “side letters” are confidential agreements between the sponsor and individual investors that give the latter special rights, beyond those that apply to other investors in the private equity fund. Yet side letters have become a flashpoint for prominent critics of the industry, who argue that they allow private equity sponsors to benefit their favored investors at the expense of smaller, less sophisticated ones. Others have argued that, to the contrary, side letters are merely an efficient means of price discrimination—charging different prices to different investors, according to their willingness to pay—a practice …

Misaligned Measures Of Control: Private Equity's Antitrust Loophole, Aslihan Asil, John M. Barrios, Thomas G. Wollmann

Faculty Scholarship

Agencies and legislators have raised concerns that acquisitions backed by private equity (PE) threaten competition, but few, if any, have offered explanations as to why they pose a unique threat. In this article, we argue that many PE-backed acquisitions may avoid antitrust enforcement because they escape detection. Under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, parties intending to merge must notify federal authorities and wait for clearance. However, various exemptions exist based on the size of the transaction, parties involved, and proportion of control conferred by the merger. Recent work demonstrates that to police mergers effectively, agencies must be informed about transactions …

The Inspection Panel And International Law, Daniel D. Bradlow

Perspectives

This essay argues that the creation of the Inspection Panel (Panel) was an important international legal development. It was the first time that an international organization established a mechanism that enabled those communities and individuals who claimed they had been harmed by the decisions and actions of the international organization to hold the organization accountable. The creation of the Panel also promoted the role of non-state actors in making the soft international law that is applicable to the international financing of development projects. This essay will discuss each of these developments before drawing some conclusions about the Panel and international …

Ending Violence In Development Finance Actions To Affirmatively Prevent And Stop Reprisals Against Rights Defenders, Gregory Berry

Perspectives

This Essay makes a case for stronger enforcement and implementation of zero-tolerance policies on reprisals within Development Finance Institutions. It argues that for DFIs to inculcate any hopeful vision of a just and inclusive transition to a sustainable future, they must begin by affirmatively cutting at the roots of reprisals. The essay particularly emphasizes two essential changes. First, Independent Accountability and Audit Mechanisms must be empowered to protect the safety of defenders by self-initiating investigations where there are credible concerns of reprisals, and by accepting anonymously submitted complaints. Second, DFIs must evolve to grow teeth for enforcing measures against retaliatory …

Reflections On The Role Of The Panel, Charles Di Leva

Perspectives

Over the past thirty years, the World Bank and the Inspection Panel have had a supportive relationship regarding the principle of accountability, particularly as applied to the field of development finance operations and the role and responsibility of the Bank as a multilateral public sector financial institution. This relationship has been apparent in at least three key aspects: i) following the Bank’s lead, many development institutions around the globe have taken steps to improve their own accountability and developed independent accountability mechanisms (IAMs) modeled on the Inspection Panel; ii) the Bank and other development institutions have been supporting the development …

Three Decades Of Seeking Elusive Remedies, Richard E. Bissell

Perspectives

Remedy is a topic to be approached with some trepidation in the area of accountability. Throughout three decades of proliferating International Accountability Mechanisms ( IAMs), remedy has been the issue least addressed by leadership. Most management and board members find it threatening, wherever a remedial action falls on the spectrum, from an apology for error to financial compensation. The pursuit of remedy builds on the demonstrated existence of harm, which is embarrassing at the least, and brings a focus on consequences and actionable steps for those people whose lives have been damaged as well as for environmental violations. This short …

Rethinking 'What Counts' As Accountability, Jonathan Fox

Perspectives

The current accountability impasse suggests it may be time to rethink core concepts, as well as the field’s underlying theories of change. The idea of accountability is malleable, ambiguous — and contested. This fuzziness poses challenges for both theory and practice – how do we know what strategies bolster accountability – or whether accountability produces its expected effects? This think piece recognizes the challenge of defining ‘what counts’ as accountability, unpacks a longstanding theory of change - that sunshine is the best disinfectant - and considers some information-based reform initiatives to identify missing links in the causal chain between transparency …

The Inspection Panel Early Years (An Inside Story), Eduardo G. Abbott

Perspectives

This retrospective analysis explores the establishment and evolution of the World Bank Inspection Panel, from the perspective of the Panel’s first executive secretary. The Perspective describes the initial expectations, challenges, and concerns faced by the first Panel members as they wrestled to operationalize an unprecedented institution. The Perspective documents the strategic actions the Panel took to safeguard its independence and ensure its accessibility to potential claimants. The Perspective concludes with a review of the Panel’s contemporary struggles for autonomy prompted by a restructuring of the Panel and the evolving landscape of accountability mechanisms within the World Bank Group.