Law Commons^™

Woke Capital Revisited, Jennifer S. Fan

Seattle University Law Review

Inclusive corporate leadership is now at the forefront of discussions related to corporate governance. Two corporate theories help to explain the rise in prominence of diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) efforts in corporate leadership. First, an expanded definition of corporate purpose which elevated the idea of the importance of stakeholders, contributed to the momentum from business and legal quarters for broader corporate inclusion. Second, the increasing publicness of corporations—the social expectation of how large, typically public corporations should act given their position of power—also led to corporations becoming more active in the DEI space. It is against this backdrop that …

The World Moved On Without Me: Redefining Contraband In A Technology-Driven World For Youth Detained In Washington State, Stephanie A. Lowry

Seattle University Law Review

If you ask a teenager in the United States to show you one of their favorite memories, they will likely show you a picture or video on their cell phone. This is because Americans, especially teenagers, love cell phones. Ninety-seven percent of all Americans own a cell phone according to a continuously updated survey by the Pew Research Center. For teenagers aged thirteen to seventeen, the number is roughly 95%. For eighteen to twenty-nine-year-olds, the number grows to 100%. On average, eight to twelve-year-old’s use roughly five and a half hours of screen media per day, in comparison to thirteen …

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.

A More Capacious Concept Of Church, Philip Hackney, Samuel D. Brunson

Articles

United States tax law provides churches with extra benefits and robust protection from IRS enforcement actions. Churches and religious organizations are automatically exempt from the income tax without needing to apply to be so recognized and without needing to file a tax return. Beyond that, churches are protected from audit by stringent procedures. There are good reasons to consider providing a distance between church and state, including the state tax authority. In many instances, Congress granted churches preferential tax treatment to try to avoid excess entanglement between church and state, though that preferential treatment often just shifts the locus of …

Public Ownership And The Wto In A Post Covid-19 Era: From Trade Disputes To A 'Social' Function, Paolo Davide Farah, Davide Zoppolato

Articles

Public ownership is closely bound to the need of the government to protect and guarantee the well-being of its citizens. Where the market cannot, or does not want to, provide goods and services, the State uses different tools to intervene, influence, and control some aspects of the private sphere of expression of its citizens in the name and interest of the collectivity. Although, in the past century, this behavior was accepted as one of the expressions of the public authority and part of the social contract, this perception has shifted partially in accordance with the wave of privatization programs initiated …

The Futures Of Law, Lawyers, And Law Schools: A Dialogue, Sameer M. Ashar, Benjamin H. Barton, Michael J. Madison, Rachel F. Moran

Articles

On April 19 and 20, 2023, Professors Bernard Hibbitts and Richard Weisberg convened a conference at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law titled “Disarmed, Distracted, Disconnected, and Distressed: Modern Legal Education and the Unmaking of American Lawyers.” Four speakers concluded the event with a spirited conversation about themes expressed during the proceedings. Distilling a lively two days, they asked: what are the most critical challenges now facing US legal education and, by extension, lawyers and the communities they serve? Their agreements and disagreements were striking, so much so that Professors Hibbitts and Weisberg invited those four to extend their …

The Price Of Fairness, Christopher Buccafusco, Daniel Hemel, Eric Talley

Faculty Scholarship

The COVID-19 pandemic led to acute supply shortages across the country as well as concerns over price increases amid surging demand. In the process, it reawakened a debate about whether and how to regulate “price gouging”—a controversy that continues as inflation has accelerated even as the pandemic abates. Animating this debate is a longstanding conflict between laissez-faire economics, which champions price fluctuations as a means to allocate scarce goods, and perceived norms of consumer fairness, which are thought to cut strongly against sharp price hikes amid shortages.

This Article provides a new, empirically grounded perspective on the price gouging debate …

Private Environmental Nudges, Anthony Moffa

Faculty Publications

Environmentalist outcry against single-use plastics has rapidly translated into municipal and state policy. Bans and taxes on plastic bags, and, to a lesser extent, polices targeting plastic food/drink containers and plastic straws, have popped up all over the country. Many large national corporations, including Starbucks, Disney, and Hyatt to name a few, have also taken steps to reduce the amount of single-use plastics that their customers add to the waste stream.

Two ongoing discussions in the environmental law scholarship parallel these innovations in policy. The first re-examines the proper role for subnational governments in environmental policymaking, reviving a debate about …

A Theory Of Claim Resolution, Scott Baker, Lewis A. Kornhauser

Scholarship@WashULaw

We study claim resolution. A claim consists of a global fact and a local fact. The global fact is observed by the principal and the agent. The local fact is observed by the agent alone. The agent resolves the claim; the principal decides whether the agent is more likely wrong or right. The principal and agent can disagree about the weight to accord each fact or the overall evidence threshold. The agent cares whether the principal follows or ignores her advice. We characterize how the equilibrium varies with the nature of disagreement. Despite lacking commitment power, we nd that the …

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" …

The Failure Of Market Efficiency, William Magnuson

Faculty Scholarship

Recent years have witnessed the near total triumph of market efficiency as a regulatory goal. Policymakers regularly proclaim their devotion to ensuring efficient capital markets. Courts use market efficiency as a guiding light for crafting legal doctrine. And scholars have explored in great depth the mechanisms of market efficiency and the role of law in promoting it. There is strong evidence that, at least on some metrics, our capital markets are indeed more efficient than they have ever been. But the pursuit of efficiency has come at a cost. By focusing our attention narrowly on economic efficiency concerns—such as competition, …

Rationing Access, Roy Baharad, Gideon Parchomovsky

All Faculty Scholarship

Protection of common natural resources is one of the foremost challenges facing our society. Since Garrett Hardin published his immensely influential The Tragedy of the Commons, theorists have contemplated the best way to save common-pool resources—national parks, fisheries, heritage sites, and fragile ecosystems—from overuse and extinction. These efforts have given rise to three principal methods: private ownership, community governance, and use restrictions. In this Essay, we present a different solution to the commons problem that has eluded the attention of theorists: access rationing. Access rationing measures rely not only on restrictions on the number of users but also on …

Judges For Sale: The Effect Of Campaign Contributions On State Criminal Courts, Arturo Romero Yáñez, Neel U. Sukhatme

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Do campaign contributions impact democratic processes? Using donation data from Texas, we show that criminal defense attorneys who contribute to a district judge’s electoral campaign are preferentially assigned by that judge to indigent defense cases, i.e., public contracts in which the state pays private attorneys to represent poor defendants.

We estimate that attorney donors receive twice as many cases as non-donors during the month of their campaign contribution. Nearly two-thirds of this increase is explained by the contribution itself, with the remainder attributable to shared preferences within attorney-judge pairs, such as those based on professional, ideological, political, or personal ties. …

Amazon's Pricing Paradox, Rory Van Loo, Nikita Aggarwal

Faculty Scholarship

Antitrust scholars have widely debated the apparent paradox of Amazon seemingly wielding monopoly power while offering low prices to consumers. A single company’s behavior thereby helped spark an intellectual renaissance as scholars debated why Amazon’s prices were so low, whether antitrust enforcers should intervene, and, eventually, how the field should be reformed for the era of large online platforms. One of the few things that all parties have agreed upon amidst those contentious conversations is that Amazon offers low prices. This Article challenges that assumption by demonstrating that Amazon charges higher prices than commonly understood. More importantly, unraveling the disconnect …

If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them: Richard Posner And Behavioral Law And Economics, Avishalom Tor, Doran Teichman, Eyal Zamir

Journal Articles

Since its publication in 1973, Economic Analysis of Law (the Treatise) by Richard Posner has been recognized as the canonical treatise in the field. Given this status, observing changes over time in the different editions of the book can highlight substantial and methodological shifts in the area. On this backdrop, this brief essay will highlight Posner's change of attitude towards behavioral analysis of law over the years, culminating with the incorporation of behavioral insights into the las edition of this book, published in 2024.

Nudge Efficiency, Avishalom Tor

Book Chapters

Law and Economics in All His Facets: Festschrift in Honour of Klaus Mathis

Only a small portion of the substantial literature on behavioral interventions ("nudges") that developed over the last fifteen to twenty years has considered nudges from an economic perspective. Moreover, despite the importance of the topic for a law and economics assessment of this increasingly common form of regulation, even fewer contributions have examined whether and when behavioral instruments are likely to make an efficient means for increasing social welfare. This chapter therefore offers some basic observations about nudge efficiency: Part I opens with a reminder that behavioral …

Digital Nudges: Contours And Challenges, Avishalom Tor

Book Chapters

Series: Economic Analysis of Law in European Legal Scholarship, vol. 15

Digital nudges—that is, significantly behavioral interventions that use software and its user-interface design elements—are an increasingly pervasive feature of online environments that shapes behavior both online (e.g., changing online privacy settings) and offline (e.g., taking a flu vaccine due to a text message reminder). Although digital nudges share many characteristics of their offline counterparts, they merit particular attention and analysis for two important reasons: First, the growing ubiquity of digital nudges makes encountering them nearly unavoidable in daily life, thereby bringing into sharper relief the promise and perils of …

Reforming Shareholder Claims In Isds, Julian Arato, Kathleen Claussen, Jaemin Lee, Giovanni Zarra

Articles

ISDS stands alone in empowering shareholders to bring claims for reflective loss (SRL) – meaning claims over harms allegedly inflicted upon the company, but which somehow affect share value. National systems of corporate law and public international law regimes generally bar SRL claims for strong policy reasons bearing on the efficiency and fairness of the corporate form. Though not necessitated by treaty text, nor beneficial in policy terms, ISDS tribunals nevertheless allow shareholders broad and regular access to seek relief for reflective loss. The availability of SRL claims in ISDS ultimately harms States and investors alike, imposing surprise ex post …

Specific Performance: On Freedom And Commitment In Contract Law, Hanoch Dagan, Michael A. Heller

Faculty Scholarship

When should specific performance be available for breach of contract? This question — at the core of contract — divides common-law and civil-law jurisdictions and it has bedeviled generations of comparativists, along with legal economists, historians, and philosophers. Yet none of these disciplines has provided a persuasive answer. This Article provides a normatively attractive and conceptually coherent account, one grounded in respect for the autonomy of the promisor’s future self. Properly understood, autonomy explains why expectation damages should be the ordinary remedy for contract breach. This same normative commitment justifies the “uniqueness exception,” where specific performance is typically awarded, and …

Price Gouging In A Pandemic, Christopher Buccafusco, Daniel Hemel, Eric L. Talley

Faculty Scholarship

The COVID-19 pandemic led to acute supply shortages across the country as well as concerns over price increases amid surging demand. In the process, it reawakened a debate about whether and how to regulate “price gouging” — a controversy that continues as inflation has accelerated even as the pandemic abates. Animating this debate is a longstanding conflict between laissez-faire economics, which champions price fluctuations as a means to allocate scarce goods, and perceived norms of consumer fairness, which are thought to cut strongly against sharp price hikes amid shortages.

This Article provides a new, empirically grounded perspective on the price …

Financial Inclusion, Cryptocurrency, And Afrofuturism, Lynnise E. Pantin

Faculty Scholarship

As a community, Black people consistently face barriers to full participation in traditional financial markets. The decentralized nature of the cryptocurrency market is attractive to a community that has been historically and systematically excluded from the traditional financial markets by both private and public actors. As new entrants to any type of financial market, Black people have increasingly embraced blockchain technology and cryptocurrency as a path towards the wealth-building opportunities and financial freedom they have been denied in traditional markets. This Article analyzes whether the technology’s decentralized system will lead to financial inclusion or increased financial exclusion. Without reconciling the …

Reconnecting The Patient: Why Telehealth Policy Solutions Must Consider The Deepening Digital Divide, Laura C. Hoffman

Journal of Law and Health

This Article attempts to untangle the complicated web of providing telehealth to those populations it is potentially capable of further alienating from access to healthcare including: 1) race/minority populations, 2) aging adults, 3) individuals with disabilities, 4) non-English speakers, 5) individuals living in rural areas, 6) socioeconomic class, and 7) children, in order to advance the argument that telehealth can be successful in providing healthcare access to these populations. Rather than suggesting that telehealth simply “cannot work” for these populations, instead this Article considers how telehealth can and must meet the needs of these individuals through technology, access, and policy …

Is Investment Arbitration An Effective Alternative To Court Litigation? Towards A Smart Mix Of Litigation And Arbitration In Resolving Investment Disputes, Wanli Ma, Michael Faure

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

This article analyzes litigation and arbitration as commonly used methods for dispute resolution, more particularly between foreign investors and host states. It compares investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) via investor-state arbitration with dispute resolution via domestic courts in the host state. The article adopts a goal-based approach for assessing the effectiveness of international adjudication and analyzes the extent to which the current ISDS system is aligned with its predetermined goals. The article starts by identifying four goals of ISDS: 1) fair and efficient dispute resolution, 2) norm compliance, 3) facilitating the objectives of the investment law regime, and 4) legitimizing the …

Liability Rule Practices Amidst The Property Rule Of Indonesian Capital Market, Adiwarman Adiwarman

Indonesia Law Review

Shareholder protection is the most important legal issue in capital market law. Conflict of interest is one of the corporate actions in the capital market. The property rule requires independent shareholders’ approval for conflicts of interest transactions. The property rule paradigm empowers independent shareholders in the company’s decision-making process. In practice, listed companies violate the property rule and are subject to sanctions, but the rights of shareholders will be reduced due to fines imposed by the capital market authorities. A normative method is used to answer the problem of how does Indonesia enforce the conflict of interest rule in order …

Fixing "Litigating The Fix", Steven C. Salop, Jennifer E. Sturiale

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Merging firms have increasingly been asking trial courts to adjudicate their merger “as remedied” by a voluntary “fix.” These are remedies that have been rejected by (or never proposed to) the agency. This procedure is known as Litigating-the-Fix” (“LTF”). This article proposes a judicial procedure for managing cases in which the merging parties attempt to LTF. Our recommendations flow from a decision theory approach informed by the relevant LTF case law, the merger enforcement record, the language and goals of Section 7, and an economic analysis of the incentives of the parties and agencies created by LTF. Our recommendation addresses …

Penerapan Doktrin Piercing The Corporate Veil Terhadap Negara Pada Holding Badan Usaha Milik Negara, Deny Adi Pratama

"Dharmasisya” Jurnal Program Magister Hukum FHUI

The lack of regulation regarding group company's conception in Indonesia provokes several problems. The policy on establishing holding BUMN in Indonesia only supervised by Government Regulation Number 72 Year 2016 concerning Change of Government Regulation Number 44 Year 2005 regarding Procedure of Participation and Administration Funds upon State-Owned Enterprises and Limited Liability Company. However, the provision which becomes the legal basis underlying BUMN and Limited Liability Company are supervised upon regulation equals to act. Those of which cause a contradiction amongst both provisions of laws and regulation. The rights and obligations along with the country's responsibilities as a public legal …

Pembentukan Holding Company Badan Usaha Milik Negara (Bumn) Di Sektor Infrastruktur Ditinjau Dalam Persaingan Usaha Tidak Sehat, Wiesma Mara Rangga

"Dharmasisya” Jurnal Program Magister Hukum FHUI

That a large number of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in infrastructure has caused competition, especially when competing against one another in participating in the same tender. This is not in line with the synergy plan between SOEs, which is one of the essential pillars. SOEs belonging to similar value chain groups should work together to accelerate economic growth and synergies at various levels through corporate, transaction, and operational restructuring. Optimizing the formation of infrastructure holding can be done through collaboration and synergy between SOE entities, strengthening and increasing the capacity of each holding member, and integrating infrastructure development. However, the plan …

Masuknya Tenaga Pendidik Asing Di Bidang Teknologi Informasi Dalam Rangka Liberalisasi Pendidikan Tinggi Dalam Menjawab Permasalahan Kebutuhan Atas Sumber Daya Manusia Yang Berkualitas Di Era Industri 4.0, Rodeen Chenggaliex

"Dharmasisya” Jurnal Program Magister Hukum FHUI

Education liberalization has become a hot topic of discussion in Indonesia lately, starting with bringing in foreign higher education leaders to Indonesian universities; in the Industrial 4.0 era, Indonesia still lacks qualified information technology experts to support industry 4.0. Educational sciences in Indonesia are now considered to be still unable to compete with educational sciences abroad. The liberalization of education will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the development of academic science in the development of the Indonesian nation. The problem is this paper focuses on the issue of the low quality of education in the field of information technology …

Perbandingan Sistem Hukum Civil Law Dan Common Law Dalam Penerapan Yurisprudensi Ditinjau Dari Politik Hukum, Praise Juinta W.S. Siregar

"Dharmasisya” Jurnal Program Magister Hukum FHUI

The legal system is related to the concept of law, where the two things have an inseparable relationship with each other. In principle, the legal system regulates the life of a community so that conflicts do not occur, where if the conflict is unavoidable, then the legal system has an important role in resolving the conflict. The legal system in the judiciary has a major influence in the application of the law, especially for judges in examining and deciding a case. The Panel of Judges in deciding a case will definitely pay close attention to the legal system in its …

Kebijakan Countercyclical Sebagai Upaya Kesejahteraan Masyarakat, Made Cinthya Puspita Shara

"Dharmasisya” Jurnal Program Magister Hukum FHUI

Indonesia's high level of economic growth is in line with the development of businesses that increase capital by making credit agreements with financial institutions. However, the state spread of the co-19 pandemic case has been declared a national disaster, impacting the implementation of credit agreements between the debtor and financial institutions. Economic problems make it difficult for people to carry out their obligations. A countercyclical buffer policy is a buffer that is carried out by providing additional capital to replace losses if excessive credit growth occurs, which has the potential to disrupt financial stability. Bank Indonesia Policy PBI No.17/22/PBI/2015, also …