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Full-Text Articles in Law

The New York Limited Liability Company Law At Twenty: Past, Present & Future, Meredith R. Miller Aug 2015

The New York Limited Liability Company Law At Twenty: Past, Present & Future, Meredith R. Miller

Meredith R. Miller

The New York Limited Liability Company Law (“LLC Law”) has turned 20. This occasion presents an opportunity to reflect on its past, present and future.


Party Sophistication And Value Pluralism In Contract, Meredith R. Miller Oct 2013

Party Sophistication And Value Pluralism In Contract, Meredith R. Miller

Meredith R. Miller

In a previous article, Contract Law, Party Sophistication and the New Formalism, 75 Missouri L. Rev. 493 (2010), I documented a trend in United States case law and scholarship that fashions a dichotomy between sophisticated and unsophisticated parties. That article set out to explain the trend as a theoretical compromise between formalism and realism in the face of a renewed formalism. However, as I noted in the previous article, the “new formalism” may not be formalism at all because it retains normative concerns. Indeed, the shift in legal thought may be more appropriately and simply characterized as embracing pluralism. This …


Strategic Default: The Popularization Of A Debate Among Contract Scholars, Meredith R. Miller Nov 2011

Strategic Default: The Popularization Of A Debate Among Contract Scholars, Meredith R. Miller

Meredith R. Miller

A June 2010 report estimates that roughly 20% of mortgage defaults in the first half of 2009 were “strategic.” “Strategic default” describes the situation where a home borrower has the financial ability to continue to pay her mortgage but chooses not to pay and walks away. The ubiquity of strategic default has lead to innumerable newspaper articles, blog posts, website comments and editorial musings on the morality of homeowners who can afford to pay but choose, instead, to walk away. This Article centers on the current public discourse concerning strategic default, which mirrors a continuing debate among scholars regarding whether …


The Limitation On Undocumented Workers’ Lost Earnings After Balbuena And Sanango: Crafting A Fair And Principled Balance Of Immigration Policy And New York State Labor Law § 240 Safety Goals, Meredith R. Miller Nov 2011

The Limitation On Undocumented Workers’ Lost Earnings After Balbuena And Sanango: Crafting A Fair And Principled Balance Of Immigration Policy And New York State Labor Law § 240 Safety Goals, Meredith R. Miller

Meredith R. Miller

In December 2004, in a pair of cases, the Appellate Division, First Department, held that under state labor and tort laws, injured workers who are not legally permitted to be present or employed in the United States are only entitled to receive lost earnings reflecting what they could have earned in their country of origin. This article explores these First Department decisions by first discussing the federal statutory and decisional backdrop against which the cases arose. This article then provides a discussion of the First Department cases and the competing economic incentives they implicate. Finally, this article posits that a …


Bernard S. Meyer Et Al., The History Of The New York Court Of Appeals, 1932-2003, Meredith R. Miller Nov 2011

Bernard S. Meyer Et Al., The History Of The New York Court Of Appeals, 1932-2003, Meredith R. Miller

Meredith R. Miller

No abstract provided.


Contract Law, Party Sophistication And The New Formalism, Meredith Miller Nov 2011

Contract Law, Party Sophistication And The New Formalism, Meredith Miller

Meredith R. Miller

With increasing frequency, courts are mentioning party sophistication as relevant to whether a contract has been formed, whether a contract is enforceable, how the contract should be interpreted, and even, in some instances, the determination of an appropriate remedy. Sophisticated parties are held to a different set of rules, grounded in freedom of contract. It is presumed that a sophisticated party was aware of what to bargain for and read (or should have read) and understood (or should have understood) the terms of a written agreement. But, just what do courts mean when they call a contracting party “sophisticated”? “Sophistication” …


Revisiting Austin V. Loral: A Study In Economic Duress, Contract Modification And Framing, Meredith R. Miller Nov 2011

Revisiting Austin V. Loral: A Study In Economic Duress, Contract Modification And Framing, Meredith R. Miller

Meredith R. Miller

Austin v. Loral, 29 N.Y.2d 124 (1971), is a favorite among Contracts casebooks because the New York Court of Appeals held that it was a "classic" example of economic duress. It involved Austin, a small gear part manufacturer, who had entered into a subcontract to provide gear parts to Loral, a publicly-traded defense industry supplier. Loral had a contract with the U.S. government to supply radar sets, to be used in the U.S. efforts in Vietnam. Midway through performance of the subcontract, Austin apparently refused to continue to deliver the gear parts unless Loral acceded to certain demands, which included …


A Picture Of The New York Court Of Appeals At The Time Of Wood V. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, Meredith R. Miller Feb 2011

A Picture Of The New York Court Of Appeals At The Time Of Wood V. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, Meredith R. Miller

Meredith R. Miller

No abstract provided.


Contracting Out Of Process, Contracting Out Of Corporate Accountability: An Argument Against Enforcement Of Pre-Dispute Limits On Process, Meredith R. Miller Feb 2011

Contracting Out Of Process, Contracting Out Of Corporate Accountability: An Argument Against Enforcement Of Pre-Dispute Limits On Process, Meredith R. Miller

Meredith R. Miller

There have been many well-articulated and convincing critiques aimed at mandatory arbitration. Indeed, presently before Congress is proposed legislation titled the Arbitration Fairness Act, that would ban pre-dispute arbitration in the consumer, franchise and employment contexts. However, maligned as the plaintiff bar's pro-lawsuit legislation, the Arbitration Fairness Act is predicted to have very little chance of enactment. Consequently, across varying industries, the pre-dispute arbitration regime endures unheedingly. Thus, this Article sets aside the arguments aimed generally at pre-dispute arbitration clauses and, instead, sets its sights on some of the terms that seem to arise in such clauses. The focus here …