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Full-Text Articles in Law
Strengthening The Passivity Default, Ian Ayres, Edward Fox
Strengthening The Passivity Default, Ian Ayres, Edward Fox
Articles
In The Prudence of Passivity, Bryon Harmon and Laura Fisher (hereafter HF) argue that "passive management become the default approach for the investment of trust funds, to be abandoned only when circumstances specifically dictate the use of active management."' In this comment we argue that their thesis could be strengthened (i) by more clearly distinguishing between default law and default investment practices, (ii) by more clearly articulating their favored altering rules.
Bankruptcy Noir, James J. White
Bankruptcy Noir, James J. White
Articles
In Bankruptcy Fire Sales, Professor LoPucki and Dr. Doherty do two things. First, they present provocative data about the relative payoff to be had in Chapter 11 by a full reorganization compared with the payoff from a section 363 sale without a full reorganization. Second, they give a yet more provocative explanation for their data. Taking a page from Professor LoPucki's recent book, they blame the meager return that they observe on 363 sales on the unprincipled behavior of the lawyers, managers, creditors, investment bankers, and even judges involved in the sales. Messrs. LoPucki and Doherty's data appear to …
Greed And Pride In International Bankruptcy: The Problems Of And Proposed Solutions To 'Local Interests', John A. E. Pottow
Greed And Pride In International Bankruptcy: The Problems Of And Proposed Solutions To 'Local Interests', John A. E. Pottow
Articles
The collapses of Yukos, Parmalat, and other international juggernauts have focused scholarly attention on the failure of multinational enterprises. Even what one might consider "American" companies, such as Chicago-based United Airlines, have made clear in their restructuring plans that their operations have profound effects on the dozens of nations around the globe where they transact business. Government and quasi-government reform efforts to regulate these cross-border insolvencies have abounded, including among others, the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency. UNCITRAL is also building on World Bank and INSOL efforts at promulgating a Legislative Guide for "best practices" bankruptcy codes. Scholars vary …
Procedural Incrementalism: A Model For International Bankruptcy, John A. E. Pottow
Procedural Incrementalism: A Model For International Bankruptcy, John A. E. Pottow
Articles
The headline-grabbing business failures of late have brought increased attention to the relatively unresolved area of multinational bankruptcies. Parmalat, Global Crossing, and United Airlines are among the few international juggernauts that have foundered. In the financial meltdowns of these cross-border institutions, assets and creditors are dispersed throughout commercial environments that rarely end neatly at national borders. There has been heated debate, both in scholarly literature and the practical battlefield, over how best to resolve these transnational insolvencies, and there is nothing yet approaching a consensus. Reform efforts of various stripes have almost uniformly failed to gain meaningful international support. At …
The Uniform Probate Code's Elective Share: Time For A Reassessment, Lawrence W. Waggoner
The Uniform Probate Code's Elective Share: Time For A Reassessment, Lawrence W. Waggoner
Articles
In this Article, Professor Waggoner proposes reforms to the Uniform Probate Code's (UPC) treatment of the elective share of the surviving spouse. First, the Article recommends that the UPC adopt a form of presentation that more transparently reflects the normative theories and empirical assumptions underlying the UPC's elective share framework. Second, the Article presents demographic data suggesting that the UPC's current elective share approximation schedule may be inappropriatef or a sizable faction of married couples, those remarryingf ollowing widowhood. Finally, the Article proposes two substantive revisions to the UPC's election share framework-the first proposal is to lengthen the approximation schedule; …
Corporate Governance Lessons From Russian Enterprise Fiascos, Merritt B. Fox, Michael A. Heller
Corporate Governance Lessons From Russian Enterprise Fiascos, Merritt B. Fox, Michael A. Heller
Articles
This Article draws on a rich array of deviant behavior in Russian enterprises to craft lessons for corporate governance theory. First, Professors Fox and Heller define corporate governance by looking to the economic functions of the firm. Based on this definition, they develop a typology that comprehensively shows all the channels through which bad corporate governance can inflict damage on a country's real economy. Second, they explain the causes of Russian enterprise fiascoes by looking to the particular initial conditions prevailing at privatization-untenable firm boundaries and insider allocation of firm shares-and the bargaining dynamics that have followed. This focus offers …
Lesbian Divorce: A Commentary On The Legal Issues, David L. Chambers
Lesbian Divorce: A Commentary On The Legal Issues, David L. Chambers
Articles
Lesbian couples who break up will find themselves in an awkward position under the law for two separable but related reasons. The first is that, because they were unmarried, they are subjected by the law to much the same uneven and ambivalent treatment to which unmarried heterosexual couples are subjected. The second, of course, is that they are gay or lesbian and thus regarded with special disfavor even in some states that have become more tolerant of unmarried heterosexual relationships. As a law teacher who is gay and who writes about family law issues relating to gay men and lesbians, …
Corporate Judgement Proofing: A Response To Lynn Lopucki's 'The Death Of Liability', James J. White
Corporate Judgement Proofing: A Response To Lynn Lopucki's 'The Death Of Liability', James J. White
Articles
In "The Death of Liability" Professor Lynn M. LoPucki argues that American businesses are rendering themselves judgment proof.- Using the metaphor of a poker game, Professor LoPucki claims American businesses are increasingly able to participate in the poker game without putting "chips in the pot." He argues that it has become easier for American companies to play the game without having chips in the pot because of the ease with which a modern debtor can grant secured credit, because of the growth of the peculiar form of sale known as asset securitization, because foreign havens for secreting assets are now …
The Multiple-Marriage Society And Spousal Rights Under The Revised Uniform Probate Code, Lawrence W. Waggoner
The Multiple-Marriage Society And Spousal Rights Under The Revised Uniform Probate Code, Lawrence W. Waggoner
Articles
Nearly everyone knows about the transformation of the American family that has taken place over the last couple of decades. The changes, from the latter half of the 1970s into the present, comprise one of the great events of our age. Articles on one aspect or another of the phenomenon frequent the popular press, and a special edition of Newsweek was recently devoted to the topic.' The traditional "Leave It To Beaver" family no longer prevails in American society. To be sure, families consisting of a wage-earning husband, a homemaking and child-rearing wife, and their two joint children still exist. …
Federal Estate Tax Burden Borne By A Dissenting Widow, Douglas A. Kahn
Federal Estate Tax Burden Borne By A Dissenting Widow, Douglas A. Kahn
Articles
Renunciation of her deceased husband's will entitles a widow to a specified percentage of the husband's net estate (or a dower interest) in lieu of any benefits she would otherwise have received under the will. The size of the dissenting widow's share differs among the several states, but the normal range is from one third to one half of her husband's net estate. In some jurisdictions the widow's share is determined, in whole or in part, according to the portion to which she would be entitled if her husband had died intestate, but in these jurisdictions the widow's share generally …