Law Commons^™

Account Me In: Agencies In Quest Of Accountability, Dorit R. Reiss

Dorit R. Reiss

This articles adds to the literature about accountability by examining the little-studied phenomenon of agencies making efforts—sometimes substantial efforts - to be accountable. It briefly describes how three agencies—the EPA, the FDA and especially the IRS—worked to increase their accountability. It demonstrates that agencies are often not the enemy in the “accountability game”. In today’s world agencies, contrary to the stereotype, often buy into the language and practice of accountability. It addresses three arguments for this behavior: a rational choice argument based on comparison of the costs of non-accountability with the benefits of accountability; a power of ideas argument showing …

The Emergence Of Global Environmental Law, Tseming Yang, Robert V. Percival

Robert Percival

With the global growth of public concern about environmental issues over the last several decades, environmental legal norms have become increasingly internationalized. This development has been reflected both in the surge of international environmental agreements as well as the growth and increased sophistication of national environmental legal systems around the world. The result is the emergence of a set of legal principles and norms regarding the environment, such that one can arguably describe it as a body of law. After exploring the diverse forces that are contributing to the emergence of what we call “global environmental law,” this Article considers …

Who's Afraid Of Shareholder Power? A Comparative Law Perspective, Jennifer G. Hill

Jennifer Hill Professor

Who’s Afraid of Shareholder Power? A Comparative Law Perspective Jennifer G. Hill* Abstract US corporate law is undergoing a seismic shift in relation to shareholder power. Although shareholders have traditionally had restricted participatory rights under US corporate law, this paradigm has been challenged in recent times. The shareholder empowerment debate raised shareholder power as a serious subject for corporate law reform. The global financial crisis has given the issue further impetus, and an unprecedented array of reforms and proposals to increase shareholder power are now on the table in the US. There has, however, been great resistance to adjusting the …

Balance Of Power, Certainty And Discretion In The Franchise Relationship: An Analysis Of Contractual Terms, Elizabeth Crawford Spencer

Elizabeth Crawford Spencer

Executive Summary: Balance of power is a factor in considerations of fairness in the formation of contracts and in Australia is an express factor in determining unconscionability in contract formation and performance. Certainty is essential to business confidence that underpins planning and investment. Certainty is also a factor in evaluating what parties have agreed to in making the contract. Discretion, if it is too wide, may no longer represent the true intentions of the parties, but may instead be an indication of other forces, including asymmetries in the power relationship. These issues are of particularly significance in franchising; redressing imbalance …

The New Regulation: From Command To Coordination In The Modern Administrative State, Robert B. Ahdieh

Robert B. Ahdieh

Bad Apples, Bad Lawyers Or Bad Decisionmaking: Lessons From Psychology And From Lawyers In The Dock, Leslie C. Levin

Leslie C. Levin

Richard Abel’s book, Lawyers in the Dock: Learning from Attorney Disciplinary Proceedings, presents six detailed case studies of New York lawyers who engaged in serious misconduct. He uses these case studies to carefully explore the social, psychological and structural conditions of lawyer deviance that lead to betrayals of trust. This essay considers what additional light some of the psychological literature, in particular, might shed on the behaviors of Abel’s lawyers for the purposes of better understanding how to prevent lawyer misconduct. More specifically, it considers how social and psychological processes may help to explain the trajectory of lawyer misconduct and …

Ripe Standing Vines And The Jurisprudential Tasting Of Matured Legal Wines – And Law & Bananas: Property And Public Choice In The Permitting Process, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

From produce to wine, we only consume things when they are ready. The courts are no different. That concept of “readiness” is how courts address cases and controversies as well. Justiciability doctrines, particularly ripeness, have a particularly important role in takings challenges to permitting decisions. The courts largely hold that a single permit denial does not give them enough information to evaluate whether the denial is in violation of law. As a result of this jurisprudential reality, regulators with discretion have an incentive to use their power to extract rents from those that need their permission. Non-justiciability of permit denials …