Law Commons^™

Regulation Of Payday Loans: Misguided?, Paige Marta Skiba

Washington and Lee Law Review

Since payday lenders came on the scene in 1990s, regulation of their “predatory” practices has been swift and often severe. Fourteen states now ban payday loans outright. From an economist’s perspective, high-interest, short-term, small loans need not be a bad thing. Payday credit can help borrowers “smooth” consumption, unequivocally improving welfare as consumers borrow from future good times to help cover current shortfalls. These benefits of credit can accrue even at typical payday loan interest rates of 300%–600% APR. The question of whether payday credit actually assists borrowers in this way is an empirical one. In this Article, I review …

Payday Loan Prohibitions: Protecting Financially Challenged Consumers Or Pushing Them Over The Edge?, William M. Webster, Iv

Washington and Lee Law Review

As recovery from the economic downturn continues, American consumers face an unabated need for short-term, small-dollar credit. To cope with this need, millions choose to take out payday loans. Often the subject of controversy and criticism, these loans have become a mainstream credit option, considered by consumers alongside so-called “traditional” credit products offered by banks and credit unions. This article examines the issues surrounding payday loans, including consumer credit needs, critical options for fulfilling those needs and consumer rationale, from the perspective of Advance America, Cash Advance Centers, Inc., the country’s largest non-bank provider of cash advance services. When faced …

The Economics And Regulation Of Bank Overdraft Protection, Todd J. Zywicki

Washington and Lee Law Review

Consumer use of bank overdraft protection has risen rapidly over the past decade, leading to increased scrutiny and the imposition of new regulations. Public and political debate regarding overdraft protection has highlighted anecdotal stories about irresponsible college students who overdraw their accounts to buy a cup of coffee, thereby triggering substantial overdraft fees. But there has been little systematic examination of the safety and soundness or consumer protection issues implicated by the increased use of overdraft protection. Available evidence indicates that those who rely on overdraft protection tend to have low credit ratings and use overdraft protection to maintain short-term …

Whistling Rogues: A Comparative Analysis Of The Dodd–Frank Whistleblower Bounty Program, Patrick A. Barthle Ii

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Applying The Stored Communications Act To The Civil Discovery Of Social Networking Sites, Rudolph J. Burshnic

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Masthead

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Editor's Note

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Same-Sex Marriage: Strengthening The Legal Shield Or Sharpening The Sword? The Impact Of Legalizing Marriage On Child Custody/Visitation And Child Support For Same-Sex Couples, Jason C. Beekman

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Charter Schools, Students Of Color And The State Action Doctrine: Are The Rights Of Students Of Color Sufficiently Protected?, Preston C. Green Iii, Erica Frankenberg, Steven L. Nelson, Julie Rowland

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Women In Mediation And Conflict Resolution: Lessons For Un Security Council Resolution 1325, Roohia S. Klein

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Need For Change: Evaluating The Medical Necessity Of Gender Reassignment Through International Standards, Chad Ayers

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Guatemala Std Inoculation Study As The Incentive To Change Modern Informed Consent Standards, Marie Constance Scheperle

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Can Social Science Defeat A Legal Fiction? Challenging Unlawful Stops Under The Fourth Amendment, Josephine Ross

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Credit On Wheels: The Law And Business Of Auto-Title Lending, Jim Hawkins

Washington and Lee Law Review

Despite the fact that they are used by millions of Americans, auto-title loans have received little attention in the legal literature about consumer credit. Friends and foes of title lending make confident statements about their net welfare effects, but we still lack empirical data on many of the central policy questions that title lending raises. This Article offers new evidence about the title lending transaction, paying special attention to the risks borrowers face when they use their vehicles as collateral for the loan. I gathered this evidence by obtaining new reports from state regulators about the title lending industry, examining …

Loan Sharks, Interest-Rate Caps, And Deregulation, Robert Mayer

Washington and Lee Law Review

The specter of the loan shark is often conjured by advocates of price deregulation in the market for payday loans. If binding price caps are imposed, the argument goes, loan sharks will be spawned. This is the loan-shark thesis. This Article tests that thesis against the historical record of payday lending in the United States since the origins of the quick-cash business around the Civil War. Two different types of creditors have been derided as “loan sharks” since the epithet was first coined. One used threats of violence to collect its debts but the other did not. The former has …

“Warning: Predatory Lender”—A Proposal For Candid Predatory Small Loan Ordinances, Christopher L. Peterson

Washington and Lee Law Review

Over a hundred different local governments around the country have adopted ordinances restricting small, high-cost loans. This trend reflects the solid majority of the American public that opposes the legality of triple-digit interest rate loans and the long historical tradition of treating payday and car-title lending as a serious civil offense or even a crime. Nevertheless, perhaps owing to limits on municipal power, local payday lending law has generated relatively little scholarship or commentary. This paper describes the existing local law governing small, high-cost consumer loans and proposes a more emphatic ordinance that better reflects the policy judgment of many …

Credit And Human Welfare: Lessons From Microcredit In Developing Nations, Alan M. White

Washington and Lee Law Review

Deregulation of usury laws, in the United States and in developing nations, has permitted various forms of small loans to be made to the poor and the working class, sometimes at very high prices. In the case of credit, more is not always better. A human development approach to evaluating the welfare impacts of credit products for the poor asks these questions: does a credit product or program increase income or consumption, achieve savings through investment in capital goods, or smooth consumption and avert crises, all at a reasonable cost? Or does the credit on balance redistribute income away from …

Virginia Bar Exam, February 2012, Section 1

Virginia Bar Exam Archive

No abstract provided.

Virginia Bar Exam, February 2012, Section 2

Virginia Bar Exam Archive

No abstract provided.

Law And Legal Theory In The History Of Corporate Responsibility: Corporate Personhood, Lyman P.Q. Johnson

Scholarly Articles

This paper, part of a larger scholarly project, addresses one of four areas – i.e., the emergence of corporate personhood – where, historically, law has both influenced and mirrored cultural expectations concerning corporate responsibility. The other areas (treated elsewhere) are corporate purpose, corporate regulation, and corporate governance. Corporate personhood is a subject of longstanding and recurring interest that, notwithstanding it has been a settled concept since the 19th century, continues to vex and excite, as seen in the U. S. Supreme Court’s splintered 5-4 decision in the 2010 case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The decades-long debates about …

Abraham Lincoln's Religion: The Case For His Ultimate Belief In A Personal, Sovereign God., Samuel W. Calhoun, Lucas E. Morel

Scholarly Articles

None available.

Categories, Tiers Of Review, And The Roiling Sea Of Free Speech Doctrine And Principle: A Methodological Critique Of United States V. Alvarez, Rodney A. Smolla

Scholarly Articles

None available.

Avatar Experimentation: Human Subjects Research In Virtual Worlds, Joshua A.T. Fairfield

Scholarly Articles

Researchers love virtual worlds. They are drawn to virtual worlds because of the opportunity to study real populations and real behavior in shared simulated environments. The growing number of virtual worlds and population growth within virtual worlds has led to a sizeable increase in the number of human subjects experiments taking place in such worlds.

Virtual world users care deeply about their avatars, their virtual property, their privacy, their relationships, their community, and their accounts. People within virtual worlds act much as they would in the physical world because the experience of the virtual world is “real” to them. The …

"Do-Not-Track" As Contract, Joshua A.T. Fairfield

Scholarly Articles

Support for enforcement of a do-not-track option in browsers has been gathering steam. Such an option presents a simple method for consumers to protect their privacy. The problem is how to enforce this choice. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) could enforce a do-not-track option in a consumer browser under its section 5 powers. The FTC, however, currently appears to lack the political will to do so. Moreover, the FTC cannot follow the model of its successful do-not-call list since the majority of Internet service providers (ISPs) assign Internet addresses dynamically — telephone numbers do not change, whereas Internet protocol (IP) …

The Challenges To Legal Education In 1973 And 2012: An Introduction To The Anniversary Issue Of The Hofstra Law Review, Nora V. Demleitner

Scholarly Articles

Not available.

Decoupling Taxes And Marriage: Beyond Innocence And Income Splitting, Michelle Lyon Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

Fourteen years ago, members of Congress sympathetically listened as divorcees testified to their struggles to raise children while being pursued by the Internal Revenue Service for tax debts, often unknown to them, that were attributable to their ex-husbands' income. Rather than adopting one of many proposals to end joint and several liability, Congress instead elected to expand the grounds on which these individuals could seek relief from such liability. Since that time, taxpayers have seen a steady expansion of the grounds for so-called “innocent spouse relief” that has evolved through a combination of legislative, administrative, and judicial action. Yet the …

A Decade After Abu Ghraib: Lessons In "Softening Up" The Enemy And Sex-Based Humiliation, Johanna E. Bond

Scholarly Articles

Not available.

Strategizing For Compliance: The Evolution Of A Compliance Phase Of Inter-American Court Litigation And The Strategic Imperative For Victims’ Representatives, David C. Baluarte

Scholarly Articles

The article focuses on the international law regarding the inter-American human rights system. It informs about the implementation of compliance jurisprudence litigation by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. It further states that the compliance has encouraged the representatives of the victims to make the litigation more meaningful so that they can get the fair judgment.

Honor As Property, Johanna E. Bond

Scholarly Articles

This Article is the first to use a property lens to explore the social construction of honor within legal systems around the world. The Article makes the claim that the law in many countries has implicitly treated honor as a form of property and has made legal and social allowances for men who seek to reclaim honor property through violence. The Article expands the boundaries of the existing scholarship concerning honor-related violence by exploring the intersections between social constructions of honor and social constructions of property. Using a property lens to analyze the relationship between honor, patriarchal control, and law …