Law Commons^™

Is Chapter 11 Too Favorable To Debtors? Evidence From Abroad, Theodore Eisenberg, Stefan Sundgren

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Chapter 11 is widely believed to be among the industrialized world's most debtor-oriented reorganization laws. Critics assert that Chapter 11 is too easily available and that it allows debtors too much control by, inter alia, not requiring appointment of a trustee. One criticism of Chapter 11, low returns to unsecured creditors, resonates with an important theme of this Symposium, the Bebchuk-Fried proposal to reduce secured creditor priority in insolvency proceedings. The Chapter 11 criticisms and the Bebchuk-Fried proposal raise the question whether less easy access to Chapter 11, reduced debtor control, diminished secured creditor priority, or other changes could reduce …

The Contested Role Of The Civil Jury In Business Litigation, Valerie P. Hans

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

According to a recent study, several of the most frequent criticisms of the jury in business cases--that it is pro-plaintiff, that its decisions are based more on sympathy and prejudice than facts, and that it focuses on the defendant's deep pockets--appear to be unfounded.

Customary International Law And State Taxation Of Corporate Income: The Case For The Separate Accounting Method, Chantal Thomas

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Agreeing To Disagree Over Excessive Trading, Lynn A. Stout

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Are Stock Markets Costly Casinos? Disagreement, Market Failure, And Securities Regulation, Lynn A. Stout

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Value Of Obvious Empirical Results And The Omniscient Mr. Palans: Response To Mr. Palans' Comments, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Mr. Palans' comment raises one worthwhile question. Most of the rest of his rant is either off the subject or too shallow to warrant extended discussion. The useful question Mr. Palans raises is whether this research is of value. The article did not defend this mode of work; perhaps I am too immersed in it to always keep in mind the merits of discussing the question. So let me spell out its benefits here.

Should We Abolish Chapter 11? The Evidence From Japan, Theodore Eisenberg, Shoichi Tagashira

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Optimizing reorganization proceedings for small and midsized businesses is an important issue in every industrial country. But little information exists about the actual operation of such proceedings. Recent U.S. bankruptcy studies focus either on consumer bankruptcies or on large Chapter 11 cases involving publicly listed firms. This article presents the results of a comprehensive empirical study of Japan's most frequently used business bankruptcy reorganization provision. Small and midsized reorganizations have become important for several reasons. First, unlike large firms, the vast majority of small businesses fail to obtain confirmation of a Chapter 11 plan and end up in liquidation, thus …

Policing Employment Contracts Within The Nexus-Of-Contracts Firm, Katherine V.W. Stone

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Union Raids, Union Democracy, And The Market For Union Control, Stewart J. Schwab

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In this article, Professor Schwab compares the union member-leader relationship to the corporate shareholder-manager relationship and examines what can be learned from the voluminous literature regarding corporate control about problems of internal union democracy. Specifically, he questions whether a viable market for union control does or could exist that might induce leaders to act in the interests of their members. He analyzes the structural weaknesses in the market for union control and the legal factors inhibiting a union takeover market. Schwab concludes that a weak market does exist, despite the nonprofit nature of unions that limits the ability of leaders …

Coase, Rents, And Opportunity Costs, Stewart J. Schwab

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Professor Posin is to be congratulated on his recent article in this Review, "The Coase Theorem: If Pigs Could Fly," for creating a precise example that purports to disprove the Coase Theorem. Legal scholarship should strive more towards verifiable or falsifiable statements about the law. Of course, falsifiable statements are a risky strategy, and in this case the risk has materialized. Posin's claim—that his example shows a flaw in the Coase Theorem—is false.

Posin's claim is an especially bold one, for his example deals with a shifting legal entitlement between two producers. Most successful attacks on the Coase Theorem have …

Are Takeover Premiums Really Premiums? Market Price, Fair Value, And Corporate Law, Lynn A. Stout

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Attitudes Toward Corporate Responsibility: A Psycholegal Perspective, Valerie P. Hans

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

One of the most striking phenomena in the contemporary legal world is the shift toward holding businesses and corporations responsible for harm. Legal theorists and historians maintain that today business corporations are expected to provide compensation for injuries that in earlier times would have been attributed to individuals or to fate. Furthermore, criminal charges against businesses and business executives are becoming commonplace.

Despite a good deal of legal scholarship on the shift toward holding businesses culpable for harms, psychologists have conducted little systematic research on public views of corporate responsibility. How do people conceptualize the civil liability or criminal responsibility …

The Jury's Response To Business And Corporate Wrongdoing, Valerie P. Hans

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Some of the most vociferous criticisms of the jury relate to its performance in cases involving business and corporate wrongdoing. The jury's competence in such cases is assaulted on a variety of fronts. Critics question the jury's factfinding ability in cases with business and corporate parties, and doubt whether lay jurors can understand the often complex and esoteric evidence of business wrongdoing. Others claim that bias and prejudice, rather than evidence, determine jury decisions about businesses and corporations. The presumed biases cut both ways. The generally positive regard in which the public holds business is credited with creating leniency toward …

Responses To Corporate Versus Individual Wrongdoing, Valerie P. Hans, M. David Ermann

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

For many years, researchers assumed that the public was indifferent to corporate wrongdoing, but recent surveys have discovered evidence to the contrary. Taking insights from these data a step further, this study employed an experimental design to examine whether people responded differently to corporate versus individual wrongdoers. We varied the identity of the central actor in a scenario involving harm to workers. Half the respondents were informed that a corporation caused the harm; the remainder were told that an individual did so. Respondents applied a higher standard of responsibility to the corporate actor. For identical actions, the corporation was judged …

Creditors' Rights Against Participants In A Leveraged Buyout, Emily Sherwin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Corporate Behavior And The Social Efficiency Of Tort Law, John A. Siliciano

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Collective Bargaining And The Coase Theorem, Stewart J. Schwab

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The Undersecured Creditor In Reorganizations And The Nature Of Security, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Product Liability And The Passage Of Time: The Imprisonment Of Corporate Rationality, James A. Henderson Jr.

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In theory, the product liability system should induce manufacturers to invest in product safety at the socially optimal level, i.e., the level at which the marginal cost of the investment equals the marginal cost of product-related accidents thereby avoided. In reality, however, this inducement may be weakened by countervailing incentives, causing manufacturers in marginal cases to forgo investment that would appear to be cost-effective. Professor Henderson argues that in these cases corporate rationality has been "imprisoned" by two "real-world" phenomena. First, a manufacturer may postpone product improvements lest they be viewed by potential claimants and juries as a confession of …

Bankruptcy Law In Perspective: A Rejoinder, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Professor Harris challenges my argument that bankruptcy reform takes place in an environment too isolated from the rest of the legal world. He also challenges each of the three illustrations I offered to support my thesis. Discussion of his views on the environment in which reform occurs is best deferred until after discussion of his analysis of my three illustrations.

A Critique Of The Business-Purpose Doctrine, Robert S. Summers

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The aims of this article are: (1) to define the nature and significance of the business-purpose doctrine as applied in the field of Federal income taxation; (2) to summarize several considerations that support abandonment of the doctrine; and (3) to consider whether a substitute doctrine is needed. Several recent cases indicate that the influence of the business-purpose doctrine is declining, and in the recent case of Knetsch v. United States the Supreme Court appears to have substituted an alternative doctrine. The dual thesis of the present article is that the business-purpose doctrine ought to be abandoned and that there is …