Law Commons^™

The Eleventh Annual Albert A. Destefano Lecture On Corporate, Securities & Financial Law At The Fordham Corporate Law Center: Are Federal Judges Competent? Dilettantes In An Age Of Economic Expertise, The Honorable Jed Rakoff

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The title of my little talk here tonight is “Are

Federal Judges Competent?” This naturally raises the question of whether I am competent to answer that question. I put this question to myself, and, after careful consideration of both sides of the argument, concluded that I am competent to determine whether I am competent. As H. L. Mencken once said, “A judge is a law student who grades his own exams.”

Accountability And The Bureau Of Consumer Financial Protection, Susan Block-Lieb

Faculty Scholarship

Some industry and political actors oppose the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on the grounds that its institutional design ensures its lack of accountability. Specifically, opponents point to the CFPB’s regulatory and financial independence and to the fact that a single director heads the Bureau rather than a bipartisan panel of commissioners. But to focus on the Bureau’s financial independence and single director misses the distinctive political deal struck when Congress created the CFPB. The CFPB has been uniquely and intentionally structured to insulate it not only from interest group influence and executive interference, but also from congressional control, while …

Lessons For Competition Law From The Economic Crisis: The Prospect For Antitrust Responses To The “Too-Big-To-Fail” Phenomenon, Jesse W. W. Markham, Jr.

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

This article examines whether, and the extent to which, antitrust law could contribute to a broader regulatory effort to control the too-big-to-fail problem. The article begins by exploring the nature of the problem. Against this backdrop, it considers antitrust policy and rules to evaluate whether antitrust might play a meaningful role. The article concludes that antitrust law, if vigorously enforced with an emphasis on avoiding too-big-to-fail problems, can be a useful public policy tool to address the problem. However, it can come nowhere near solving it or preventing recurrences of recent systemic failures.

Deconstructing Corporate Governance: Director Primacy Without Principle?, René Reich-Graefe

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

For almost eighty years now, corporate law scholarship has centered around two elementary analytical findings made in what has once been described as the “last major work of original scholarship”within the field.

The Transatlantic Divergence In Legal Thought: American Law And Economics Vs. German Doctrinalism, The, Kristoffel Grechenig, Martin Gelter

Faculty Scholarship

Law and economics has become an integral part of U.S. legal scholarship and the law school curriculum. Ever since the legal realist movement, scholars mostly view the law from an external perspective. It may be surprising to many in the United States that European legal scholarship has been largely resistant to this development. Law is typically viewed "from the inside," that is as an autonomous discipline independent from the other social sciences. Most legal scholarship is doctrinal, meaning that legal scholars employ interpretative methods in order to systematically expose the law and to find out what the law is, frequently …

Chart Accompanying: An Assessment Of Cross-National Regulatory Burden Comparisons, Thomas D. Hopkins

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The Article compares several rankings systems for national regulatory compliance costs. It finds the ranking systems are limited to differentiating between those countries least burdened by regulation from those most burdened by regulation. It concludes the rankings could be an important tool for deciding which countries would be the most promising for regulatory burden reduction initiatives.

Monetizing The Benefits Of Risk And Environmental Regulation, W. Kip Viscusi

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The Article responds to the school of thought reflected in the book "Priceless: On Knowing the Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing" that opposes the economists' attempts to monetize the value of environmental amenities and the value of risks to life and health. It applies the value of statistical life ("VSL") concept to regulatory decisions in order to decide whether the adoption of a regulation makes economic sense. VSL measures the value of life, as judged by measuring the amount of risk of injury workers in a particular industry are willing to take on, and the costs associated …

How Much Is That Doggy In The Window? The Inevitably Unsatisfying Duty To Monetize, Adam F. Scales

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The Article is in response to Professor Kip Viscusi's "Monetizing the Benefits of Risk and Environmental Regulation." It emphasizes several issues Viscusi's "value of a statistical life" (VSL) methodology fails to capture: (1) the distinction and difference in value between willingness to pay for a regulation and willingness to accept; (2) the fact that the many risks, for which regulations have been adopted, are so slight that the value to many is actually the value of not seeing someone else suffer harm in the absence of regulation; (3) real life irrational decision-making does not easily fit into an economic value; …

An Assessment Of Cross-National Regulatory Burden Comparisons, Thomas D. Hopkins

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The Article compares several rankings systems for national regulatory compliance costs. It finds the ranking systems are limited to differentiating between those countries least burdened by regulation from those most burdened by regulation. It concludes the rankings could be an important tool for deciding which countries would be the most promising for regulatory burden reduction initiatives.

Double Jeopardy Of Corporate Profits, The , Constantine N. Katsoris

Faculty Scholarship

The more one reads about our economy, the more one is baffled and alarmed. Permanent solutions to economic problems are elusive. Treating one financial malaise often aggravates another sector of the economy, necessitating a delicate balancing of conflicting interests. Furthermore, the problems are complicated by the constant influence of foreign forces. Nevertheless, most economists agree that any solution will require enormous funding. Unfortunately, the public has little, if any, confidence in our tax system. Indeed, some tax laws and proposals have been referred to as "obscene" and a "disgrace to the human race." Few quarrel with the aptness of such …