Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Law

Funding Irrationality, Adam S. Zimmerman Mar 2010

Funding Irrationality, Adam S. Zimmerman

Duke Law Journal

This Article challenges the conventional wisdom that claimants in class action settlement funds and other settlement funds make independent and rational settlement decisions. Cognitive psychologists and behavioral economists have long examined the way people make judgments and choices. Such studies show that decisionmakers routinely change their minds based on their view of the status quo, the timing of the decision, and the presence of seemingly irrelevant choices. Because of these cognitive biases, people will buy things they do not want, save too little for retirement, and make risky choices about their health and well-being based on the timing, context, and …


Punitive Damages And Class Actions, Francis E. Mcgovern Feb 2010

Punitive Damages And Class Actions, Francis E. Mcgovern

Louisiana Law Review

No abstract provided.


Italy’S Class Action Experiment, Roald Nashi Jan 2010

Italy’S Class Action Experiment, Roald Nashi

Cornell International Law Journal

No abstract provided.


Hydrogen Peroxide: The Third Circuit Comes Clean About The Rule 23 Class Action Certification Standard, Amy Dudash Jan 2010

Hydrogen Peroxide: The Third Circuit Comes Clean About The Rule 23 Class Action Certification Standard, Amy Dudash

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.


Are National Class Actions Constitutional?: A Reply To Hogg And Mckee, Janet Walker Jan 2010

Are National Class Actions Constitutional?: A Reply To Hogg And Mckee, Janet Walker

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article argues that there is no constitutional impediment to the certification of multijurisdictional class actions by provincial superior courts, and no constitutional requirement to confine plaintiff classes to those in which each claim has a real and substantial connection to the forum. Neither the text of the Constitution nor the constitutionally mandated rules of the conflict of laws restrict court jurisdiction in this way. Rather, the principles of order and fairness require Canadian courts to exercise jurisdiction over multi-jurisdictional class actions in a way that maximizes the objectives of class actions, and minimizes the incidence of overlapping classes and …


Mapping The American Shareholder Litigation Experience: A Survey Of Empirical Studies Of The Enforcement Of The U.S. Securities Law, James D. Cox, Randall S. Thomas Jan 2010

Mapping The American Shareholder Litigation Experience: A Survey Of Empirical Studies Of The Enforcement Of The U.S. Securities Law, James D. Cox, Randall S. Thomas

Faculty Scholarship

In this paper, we provide an overview of the most significant empirical research that has been conducted in recent years on the public and private enforcement of the federal securities laws. The existing studies of the U.S. enforcement system provide a rich tapestry for assessing the value of enforcement, both private and public, as well as market penalties for fraudulent financial reporting practices. The relevance of the U.S. experience is made broader by the introduction through the PSLRA in late 1995 of new procedures for the conduct of private suits and the numerous efforts to evaluate the effects of those …


Punitive Damages And Class Actions, Francis Mcgovern Jan 2010

Punitive Damages And Class Actions, Francis Mcgovern

Faculty Scholarship

The union of punitive damages and class actions can be aptly described with Samuel Johnson’s famous quotation regarding marriage: “The triumph of hope over experience.” By most conventional wisdom, there is little future for plaintiffs or defendants who desire to resolve punitive damages claims globally using the procedural vehicle of a class action. From a conceptual perspective, however, there are circumstances under which the union could function. This Article explores those possibilities, not in the spirit of normative support, but in the spirit of exploring theories that may have some prospective vitality. Notwithstanding the chilly reception that punitive damages class …


Lying And Getting Caught: An Empirical Study Of The Effect Of Securities Class Action Settlements On Targeted Firms, James D. Cox, Lynn Bai, Randall S. Thomas Jan 2010

Lying And Getting Caught: An Empirical Study Of The Effect Of Securities Class Action Settlements On Targeted Firms, James D. Cox, Lynn Bai, Randall S. Thomas

Faculty Scholarship

The ongoing Great Recession has triggered numerous proposals to improve the regulation of financial markets and, most importantly, the regulation of organizations such as credit rating agencies, underwriters, hedge funds, and banks, whose behavior is believed to have caused the credit crisis that spawned the economic collapse. Not surprisingly, some of the reform efforts seek to strengthen the use of private litigation. Private suits have long been championed as a necessary mechanism not only to compensate investors for harms they suffer from financial frauds but also to enhance deterrence of wrongdoing. However, in recent years there has been a chorus …


Judicial Ability And Securities Class Actions, Mitu Gulati, Stephen J. Choi, Eric A. Posner Jan 2010

Judicial Ability And Securities Class Actions, Mitu Gulati, Stephen J. Choi, Eric A. Posner

Faculty Scholarship

We exploit a new data set of judicial rulings on motions in order to investigate the relationship between judicial ability and judicial outcomes. The data set consists of federal district judges’ rulings on motions to dismiss, to approve the lead plaintiff, and to approve attorneys’ fees in securities class actions cases, and also judges’ decisions to remove themselves from cases. We predict that higher-quality judges, as measured by citations, affirmance rates, and similar criteria, are more likely to dismiss cases, reject lead plaintiffs, reject attorneys’ fees, and retain cases rather than hand them over to other judges. Our results are …