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2008

Transparency

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Institution
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Articles 1 - 20 of 20

Full-Text Articles in Law

Deregulating Guilt: The Information Culture Of The Criminal System, Alexandra Natapoff Nov 2008

Deregulating Guilt: The Information Culture Of The Criminal System, Alexandra Natapoff

Alexandra Natapoff

The criminal system has an uneasy relationship with information. On the one hand, the criminal process is centrally defined by stringent evidentiary and information rules and a commitment to public transparency. On the other, largely due to the dominance of plea bargaining, criminal liability is determined by all sorts of unregulated, non-public information that never pass through the quality control of evidentiary, discovery, or other criminal procedure restrictions. The result is a process that generates determinations of liability that are often unmoored from systemic information constraints. This phenomenon is exemplified, and intensified, by the widespread use of criminal informants, or …


Sovereign Funds: Opportunities And Concerns, Myriam Kairouz Aucar Nov 2008

Sovereign Funds: Opportunities And Concerns, Myriam Kairouz Aucar

Myriam Kairouz Aucar

Sovereign funds are not a new notion. But they are attracting so much attention now because of their size, their rapid growth having quadrupled in size between 2003 and 2007 , and because they are investing in the US financial market institutions. This paper will explain the Sovereign Wealth Funds, address the concerns they raise as well as their importance, and try to get a view of how to balance the need for these funds with the dangers they represent. The paper also discusses some protective measures that have been emplemeted as well as some suggested protective measures.


Securities Class Actions As Pragmatic Ex Post Regulation, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch Oct 2008

Securities Class Actions As Pragmatic Ex Post Regulation, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Scholarly Works

Securities class actions are on the chopping block-again. Traditional commentators continue to view class actions with suspicion; they see class suits as nonmeritorious byproducts of self-interest and the attorneys who bring them as rent-seekers. Their conventional approach has popularized securities class actions' negative effects. High-profile commissions capitalizing on this rhetoric, such as the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, have recently recommended eliminating or severely curtailing securities class actions. But this approach misses the point: in the ongoing push and pull of securities regulation, corporations are winning the battle.

Thus, understanding the full picture and texture of securities class actions necessitates …


Designing Transparency: The 9/11 Commission And Institutional Form, Mark Fenster Oct 2008

Designing Transparency: The 9/11 Commission And Institutional Form, Mark Fenster

UF Law Faculty Publications

Surpassing the low expectations established by previous investigatory commissions and overcoming the political and legal obstacles created by the Bush administration's opposition to its creation, the 9/11 Commission accomplished what appeared to be the impossible: an authoritative investigation, a widely-read final report, and direct influence on significant legislation. This Article argues that the 9/11 Commission represents an important institutional model for encouraging or forcing the Executive Branch to disclose information about an especially significant and controversial past event or future decision. It suggests that Congress or the President consider establishing such commissions when information held by the Executive Branch can …


Cafa's Impact On Litigation As A Public Good, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch May 2008

Cafa's Impact On Litigation As A Public Good, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Scholarly Works

Class actions regulate when government fails. Perhaps this use as an ex post remedy when ex ante regulation founders explains the fervor and rhetoric surrounding Rule 23's political life. In truth, the class action does more than aggregate; it augments government policing and generates external societal benefits. These societal benefits - externalities - are the spillover effects from facilitating small claims litigation. In federalizing class actions through the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA), Congress, in some ways, impeded class action practice, thereby negating its positive externalities and inhibiting backdoor regulation. This Article critically considers those effects on the common good. …


Regulation Of Pharmacy Benefit Managers: An Economic Analysis Of Regulation And Litigation As Agents Of Health Care Change, Kevin C. Green Jan 2008

Regulation Of Pharmacy Benefit Managers: An Economic Analysis Of Regulation And Litigation As Agents Of Health Care Change, Kevin C. Green

Kevin C Green

Pharmacy benefit managers or “PBMs” have come under intense legal and regulatory scrutiny in recent years. Each of the major PBMs has been targeted by public and private litigation including a major ongoing task force comprised of U.S. Attorneys and Attorneys General from twenty states. Moreover, more than 30 bills to regulate PBMs have been introduced in state legislatures since 2002. This paper provides an economic analysis of PBM regulation. I analyze the economic arguments put forward on both sides of the regulation debate and evaluate the existing empirical evidence on PBM conduct in the context of these arguments. I …


Securities Regulation In Low-Tier Listing Venues: The Rise Of The Alternative Investment Market, Jose M. Mendoza Jan 2008

Securities Regulation In Low-Tier Listing Venues: The Rise Of The Alternative Investment Market, Jose M. Mendoza

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.


Metrics And The Measurement Of International Trade: Some Thoughts On The Early Operation Of The Wto Rta Transparency Mechanism, Chi Carmody Jan 2008

Metrics And The Measurement Of International Trade: Some Thoughts On The Early Operation Of The Wto Rta Transparency Mechanism, Chi Carmody

Saint Louis University Public Law Review

No abstract provided.


Global Administrative Law: Global Governance Of The Global Positioning System And Galileo, Sang Wook Daniel Han Jan 2008

Global Administrative Law: Global Governance Of The Global Positioning System And Galileo, Sang Wook Daniel Han

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) system originally developed by the Depart- ment of Defense of the United States government in early 1970s.1


Two Crises Of Confidence: Securing Non-Proliferation And The Rule Of Law Through Security Council Resolutions, Vik Kanwar Jan 2008

Two Crises Of Confidence: Securing Non-Proliferation And The Rule Of Law Through Security Council Resolutions, Vik Kanwar

Vik Kanwar

This timely article describes the powers of the United Nations Security Council as they have developed in the field of non-proliferation, and demonstrated in recent resolutions, and goes on to propose a normative framework based on the model of reciprocal “confidence-building” measures to ensure the legality and legitimacy of these resolutions.

Recent proliferation crises (concerning Iran, North Korea, and non-state proliferation networks) have led the Council draw upon various sources-- express and implied powers under the UN Charter, powers granted by specific treaties, and an unusual degree of international consensus-- to expand its powers. This paper attempts to transcend false …


The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Opic, And The Retreat From Transparency, Blake Puckett Jan 2008

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Opic, And The Retreat From Transparency, Blake Puckett

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This article argues that the current intersection of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) is turning U.S. investment and aid policy in a direction that neither addresses corruption concerns, nor augments other U.S. foreign policy goals in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and perhaps more globally. The current regulatory system has caused OPIC to structure its investment projects in alternative forms that bypass anti-corruption regulations.W hile these alternatives serve to increase capital in developing economies, the distance they create between OPIC and the end-user fosters a lack of transparency and ultimately corruption. However, …


Tax Appeal: A Proposal To Make The United States Tax Court More Judicial, Leandra Lederman Jan 2008

Tax Appeal: A Proposal To Make The United States Tax Court More Judicial, Leandra Lederman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Accountability is a critically important protection for any justice system; its absence provides an opportunity for shortcuts that may undermine procedural fairness or even change case outcomes. Yet, the United States Tax Court, which is an Article I court, is not subject to Administrative Office of U.S. Courts or the U.S. Judicial Conference - institutions that serve and oversee the federal judiciary. In addition, because the Tax Court is not an administrative agency, it is not covered by the Administrative Procedure Act or the Freedom of Information Act. The principal source of oversight of Tax Court actions is appellate review. …


The California Greenhouse Gas Waiver Decision And Agency Interpretation: A Response To Galle And Seidenfeld, Nina A. Mendelson Jan 2008

The California Greenhouse Gas Waiver Decision And Agency Interpretation: A Response To Galle And Seidenfeld, Nina A. Mendelson

Articles

Professors Brian Galle and Mark Seidenfeld add some important strands to the debate on agency preemption, particularly in their detailed documentation of the potential advantages agencies may possess in deliberating on preemption compared with Congress and the courts. As they note, the quality of agency deliberation matters to two different debates. First, should an agency interpretation of statutory language to preempt state law receive Chevron deference in the courts, as other agency interpretations may, or should some lesser form of deference be given? Second, should a general statutory authorization to an agency to administer a program and to issue rules …


From The Periphery To The Center? The Evolving Wto Jurisprudence On Transparency And Good Governance, Padideh Ala'i Jan 2008

From The Periphery To The Center? The Evolving Wto Jurisprudence On Transparency And Good Governance, Padideh Ala'i

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The rise of the regulatory state in the latter half of the 20th century is reflected in the text of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements and specifically its transparency related obligations. The oldest transparency and good governance obligation of the WTO is Article X of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Article X imposes broad publication and due process requirements on the administration of measures in the area of trade in goods. The language of Article X is duplicated or incorporated by reference throughout the WTO Agreements. During the GATT years (1947-94), Article X was a silent provision …


Public Procurement Systems: Unpacking Stakeholder Aspirations And Expectations, Steven L. Schooner, Daniel I. Gordon, Jessica L. Clark Jan 2008

Public Procurement Systems: Unpacking Stakeholder Aspirations And Expectations, Steven L. Schooner, Daniel I. Gordon, Jessica L. Clark

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Around the world, governments are increasingly becoming focused on improving their public procurement regimes. Significant developments include the establishment of internationally shared norms for public procurement systems, while, at the national level, a number of countries have adopted dramatically new public procurement regimes, and others are experimenting with new procurement vehicles, such as framework agreements and electronic reverse auctions, and new procurement schemes, including public-private partnerships. As each of these changes is contemplated, planned, implemented, and then assessed, government leaders and policy makers need a framework of analysis for decision making - a framework based on public procurement goals and …


Court-System Transparency, Lynn M. Lopucki Jan 2008

Court-System Transparency, Lynn M. Lopucki

UF Law Faculty Publications

This article applies systems analysis to two ends. First, it identifies simple changes that would make the court system transparent. Second, it projects transparency's consequences. Transparency means that both the patterns across, and details of, case files are revealed to policymakers, litigants, and the public in easily understood forms. Government must make two changes to achieve court system transparency. The first is to remove the existing restrictions on the electronic release of court documents, including the requirements for registration, separate requests for each document, and monetary payment. The second - already being implemented in the federal courts - is to …


Beneath The Surface: Metadata, Transparency And The Ethical Use Of Information, Michael Katz Dec 2007

Beneath The Surface: Metadata, Transparency And The Ethical Use Of Information, Michael Katz

Michael Katz

While the gains from the digital revolution are tremendous in terms of increased efficiency, access to information and searchability, the change in information format has caught some off guard. No longer is data limited to what is available on a piece of paper. Yet there is a price to pay for these gains. Where once a letter’s recipient could not see anything but what the sender openly presented in the letter, today that email, word processing document and spreadsheet all contain additional information not readily visible on their face. Beneath the surface, packed into the file, exists metadata - information …


Designing Transparency: The 9/11 Commission And Institutional Form, Mark Fenster Dec 2007

Designing Transparency: The 9/11 Commission And Institutional Form, Mark Fenster

Mark Fenster

Surpassing the low expectations established by previous investigatory commissions and overcoming the political and legal obstacles created by the Bush administration’s opposition to its creation, the 9/11 Commission accomplished what appeared to be the impossible: an authoritative investigation, a widely-read final report, and direct influence on significant legislation. At a time when legal scholars have committed themselves to the study of innovative institutional design, the formal legal innovations and administrative operations of the 9/11 Commission warrant close examination to consider whether and how it can serve as a model for similar institutions in the future. This Article argues that the …


Securities Class Actions As Pragmatic Ex Post Regulation, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch Dec 2007

Securities Class Actions As Pragmatic Ex Post Regulation, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Securities class actions are on the chopping block—again. Traditional commentators continue to view class actions with suspicion; they see class suits as nonmeritorious byproducts of self-interest and the attorneys who bring them as rent-seekers. Their conventional approach has popularized securities class actions’ negative effects. High-profile commissions capitalizing on this rhetoric, such as the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, have recently recommended eliminating or severely curtailing securities class actions. But this approach misses the point: in the ongoing push and pull of securities regulation, corporations are winning the battle. Thus, understanding the full picture and texture of securities class actions necessitates …


Cafa's Impact On Litigation As A Public Good, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch Dec 2007

Cafa's Impact On Litigation As A Public Good, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Class actions regulate when government fails. Perhaps this use as an ex post remedy when ex ante regulation founders explains the fervor and rhetoric surrounding Rule 23’s political life. In truth, the class action does more than aggregate; it augments government policing and generates external societal benefits. These societal benefits – “externalities” – are the spillover effects from facilitating small claims litigation. In federalizing class actions through the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA), Congress, in some ways, impeded class action practice, thereby negating its positive externalities and inhibiting backdoor regulation. This Article critically considers those effects on the common good. …