Law Commons^™

The New Direct Proximate Cause: How The U.S. Supreme Court Has Attempted To Limit Civil Rico In A Manner Congress Aimed To Protect, Gregory M. Zarin

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This comment explores a heavily litigated issue since civil RICO's enactment - its unclear statutory scope and private party standing. To illustrate this issue, this comment explores recent RICO litigation related to the unlawful hiring of undocumented workers as an example of a Congressionally supported application of civil RICO, but in a manner wholly unrelated to organized crime or the mafia. While the Supreme Court has continued to limit civil RICO's outer boundaries, Congress seems to go the complete opposite direction by expanding the statute.

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

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The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Whistleblower Protections Under The Sarbanes-Oxley Act: A Primer And A Critique, Valerie J. Watnick

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In the wake of scandals involving Enron Corporation, Arthur Andersen and other corporations, Congress enacted the landmark Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the Corporate and Criminal Fraud Accountability Act of 2002 (hereinafter the “Act” or “Sarbanes-Oxley”).This article critically examines the whistleblower protections afforded employees under Sarbanes-Oxley. Part I of the article considers the statutory language, the legislative history, and the regulations pursuant to the Act. Part II of the article examines recent decisions by the U.S. Department of Labor in Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower cases (cases under the Act are initially adjudicated by the Department of Labor) and the overall framework for implementation …

Recent Defined Benefit Pension Reform: Reasons And Results, Daniel B. Klaff

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In the face of corporate bankruptcies, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (“PBGC”) assures workers that their defined benefit pensions will be protected. It is this fact which has motivated recent reform of the PBGC and the overarching defined benefit plan system by Congress. This paper explores those reforms by addressing the reasons for and results of the most recent reform which had as its primary aim restoring the fiscal solvency of the PBGC. The paper challenges popular accounts of the reform process while examining the results of such reform for important stakeholders without resorting to an overly technical discussion of …

Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp

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This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.

Identity Theft And Consumer Protection: Finding Sensible Approaches To Safeguard Personal Data In The United States And Canada, Kamaal Zaidi

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This paper examines identity theft in both the United States and Canada. Various examples of commercial fraud and scams are discussed in the context of a growing trend of identity thieves assuming identities of innocent consumers. As such, various pieces of legislation and consumer initiatives (involving online consumer complaint mechanisms)in U.S. and Canadian jurisdictions are highlighted to demonstrate the pursuit towards broader consumer protection of personal data used in daily commercial transactions. The author argues that these modern efforts to safeguard consumers from identity theft is a progressive measure that will continue to afford increasing protections for consumer personal data, …

Backlash To Globalization In The Form Of State Legislation: Constitutional Implications, John R. Weber

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This paper will examine the Constitutional issues raised by the influx of state anti-outsourcing legislation using a recently enacted New Jersey statute. The New Jersey statute is very similar to, and contains many of the same features as, many other bills introduced in legislatures across the nation. Moreover, the political impetus for the introduction and enactment of the legislation reflects the struggle over the outsourcing issue that is occurring in communities nationwide.

Choice In Government Software Procurement: A Winning Combination, Mclean Sieverding

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Governments are such significant purchasers of IT products and services that their purchasing decisions have a substantial impact on the world’s IT marketplace. This fact calls into question the wisdom of decisions by a few policymakers (on national, state, and local levels) around the world that have sought to require that governmental procurement officials give varying degrees of preference to open source software (OSS) when evaluating competing software solutions, claiming, among other things, that such preferences are justified because OSS is cheaper and more interoperable than proprietary software and needs government handicapping in order to enter the market to compete …

“It’S The [Tort System], Stupid:” Consumer Deductibles; How To More Equitably Distribute The Risks Of Medical Malpractice And Adequately Compensate Victims Without Statutory Damage Caps., Bradford Luke Ledbetter

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No abstract provided.

Bankruptcy Abuse: An Empirical Study Of Consumer Exemptions Cases, Bernard Trujillo

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On April 20, 2005, the President of the United States signed a sweeping legislative overhaul of the consumer bankruptcy system. The bankruptcy reform legislation is based on an empirical assertion: that sophisticated debtors with the means to re-pay their debts were instead filing for bankruptcy and acquiring a discharge, thereby abusing the bankruptcy system.

This Article presents the results of an empirical study of bankruptcy court doctrine in consumer exemptions proceedings over a twenty-year period. The findings suggest a serious empirical flaw in the premise of the bankruptcy reform legislation. The study shows that the bankruptcy system minimizes abuse by …

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

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No abstract provided.

The False Promise Of De-Regulation In Banking, Jonathan R. Macey

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Jonathan R. Macey

The False Promise of De-Regulation in Banking

Abstract

This Article presents new approach to the concept of "deregulation" in financial services and particularly banking. Generally regulatory policy is thought to involve more or less straightforward choices between regulation and deregulation. Those most concerned with market failure and equality of outcomes favoring regulation and those with faith in markets and concerns about efficient outcomes favoring deregulation.

This Article shows that government regulation, sometimes in heavy doses, is necessary in order for private markets to function effectively. Consequently, government has in important role to play in fostering markets. The …

Good Faith In The Cisg: Interpretation Problems In Article 7, Benedict C. Sheehy

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ABSTRACT: This article examines the dispute concerning the meaning of Good Faith in the CISG. Although there are good reasons for arguing a more limited interpretation or more limited application of Good Faith, there are also good reasons for a broader approach. Regardless of the correct interpretation, however, practitioners and academics need to have a sense of where the actual jurisprudence is going. This article reviews every published case on Article 7 since its inception and concludes that while there is little to suggest a strong pattern is developing, a guided pattern while incorrect doctrinally is preferable to the current …