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Ubit Me!, Thomas Simmons

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Newsroom: Logan On Judicial Diversity 12-09-2016, Kate Nagle, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

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Chemical Weapons And Other Atrocities: Contrasting Responses To The Syrian Crisis, Tim Mccormack

International Law Studies

Why has the use of chemical weapons in Syria engendered such a substantive multilateral response in stark contrast to almost every other egregious international law violation perpetrated against the civilian population? Various theories have been offered but the explanation has little to do with humanitarian concerns for Syrian victims and is more readily explicable by unusual (in the Syrian context) alignment of U.S. and Russian national interests. Bashar al-Assad was convinced to accede to the Chemical Weapons Convention, to surrender his stockpiles of chemical weapons and to co-operate with international investigators deployed under UN Security Council auspices amid a cacophony …

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Three Steps Forward, One Step Back? Reflection On 'Google Taxes' And The Destination-Based Corporate Tax, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

A large puzzle underlies the recent G20 and OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. If the scope of BEPS is as broad as the reports suggest, why are corporate tax revenues in the OECD so robust?

The final OECD report on BEPS action 11 suggest that BEPS activities result in between $100 and $240 billion in annual lost revenue from corporate income taxes (CIT) on a global basis. The wide spread between these two numbers indicates the significant uncertainty involved. But even the higher number represents a relatively small portion of total global CIT revenues, since it is …

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James D. Cox: The Shareholders’ Best Advocate, Randall S. Thomas, Harwell Wells

Duke Law Journal

This Article explores the historical development of the academic analysis of corporate law over the past forty years through the scholarship of one of its most influential commentators, Professor James D. Cox of the Duke University School of Law. It traces the ways in which corporate law scholarship changed from the 1970s to the present, including the rise of economic theory and empirical work in the study of corporate law. It shows how Professor Cox’s early scholarship shaped and challenged economic orthodoxy, while his later work used empirical analysis to help corporate law become a more dynamic and richer field. …

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The Role Of Blue Sky Laws After Nsmia And The Jobs Act, Rutheford B. Campbell Jr.

Duke Law Journal

State securities laws—in particular, state laws requiring that securities offered by issuers be registered with the states—have been an impediment to the efficient movement of capital to its highest and best use. The pernicious effects of these laws—generally referred to as “blue sky laws”—have been felt most acutely by small businesses, a vital component of our national economy.

It has been difficult to remedy this problem. States and state regulators have been tenacious in protecting their registration authority from federal preemption. The Securities and Exchange Commission, on the other hand, has been reluctant to advocate for preemption and unwilling to …

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The Knowledge Gap In Workplace Retirement Investing And The Role Of Professional Advisors, Jill E. Fisch, Tess Wilkinson-Ryan, Kristin Firth

Duke Law Journal

The dramatic shift from traditional pension plans to participant-directed 401(k) plans has increased the obligation of individual investors to take responsibility for their own retirement planning. With this shift comes increasing evidence that investors are making poor investment decisions.

This Article seeks to uncover the reasons for poor investment decisions. We use a simulated retirement investing task and a new financial literacy index to evaluate the role of financial literacy in retirement investment decisionmaking in a group of nonexpert participants. Our results suggest that individual employees often lack the skills necessary to support the current model of participant-directed investing. We …

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Journal Staff

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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Regulating Public Offerings Of Truly New Securities: First Principles, Merritt B. Fox

Duke Law Journal

The public offering of truly new securities involves purchases by investors in sufficient number and in small enough blocks that each purchaser’s shares can reasonably be expected to be freely tradable in a secondary market that did not exist before the offering. Increasing the ability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to make such offerings has been the subject of much recent discussion.

At the time that a firm initially contemplates such an offering, unusually large information asymmetries exist between its insiders and potential investors. These can lead to severe adverse-selection problems that prevent a substantial portion of worthy offerings …

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James D. Cox, David F. Levi

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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How Understanding The Nature Of Corporate Norms Can Prevent Their Destruction By Settlements, James D. Cox

Duke Law Journal

Scholars have long celebrated the importance of norms in corporate law. Indeed, norms likely guide corporate actors more than the omnipresent threat of shareholder suits. This Article divides corporate norms into two distinct groups: aspirational norms and arbiter norms. Aspirational norms announce socially desirable objectives for corporate managers and encourage certain disclosure practices; arbiter norms identify distinct transactions for closer scrutiny by an independent body, the court. This Article shows that even though aspirational norms and arbiter norms serve different objectives, they share a common characteristic—overbreadth. This feature exists whether the norm is set forth by statute or found in …

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Using The False Claims Act To Remedy Tax-Expenditure Fraud, Ian Ayres, Robert Mcguire

Duke Law Journal

The federal False Claims Act (FCA) may be a tool for combating fraudulent claims regarding tax expenditures. The FCA has been used to protect the public fisc by imposing liability upon anyone who makes a false or fraudulent claim relating to an expenditure of federal funds. A substantial share of government spending is implemented through tax credits and deductions granted to individuals and entities for taking particular actions promoted by the tax code—so-called “tax expenditures.” Funds subsidized by such tax expenditures can themselves be the objects of fraud. For example, a taxpayer could be defrauded of retirement funds that the …

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Detecting Good Public Policy Rationales For The American Rule: A Response To The Ill-Conceived Calls For “Loser Pays” Rules, Peter Karsten, Oliver Bateman

Duke Law Journal

Several critiques have been leveled at the American Rule—that is, the rule that each party to a lawsuit should pay for its attorneys. Some claim that there were no principled justifications offered by the nineteenth-century jurists who authored the opinions marking the rule’s origins. Instead, these jurists only cited their states’ “taxable costs” statutes. Others claim that the American Rule—as well as its close relative, the contingency-fee contract—contributed to a “liability explosion” in that century. This Article offers a comprehensive examination of the origins of, rationales given for, and impact of the American Rule; then it evaluates instances in which …

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“We Believe”: Omnicare, Legal Risk Disclosure And Corporate Governance, Hillary A. Sale, Donald C. Langevoort

Duke Law Journal

The Supreme Court’s decision in Omnicare Inc. v. Laborers District Council Construction Industry Pension Fund presents new challenges for boards of directors. The opinion speaks to whether and when an issuer’s statement of belief can be false or misleading other than by proof that the issuer’s genuine opinion was different from what it stated. Statements of opinion imply something about how the belief was formed, and that process implicates the role of directors as fiduciaries.

This Article uses Omnicare as a starting point for exploring and developing the interplay between disclosure, discourse, and fiduciary duties. Using the lens of corporate-discourse …

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Adaptive Financial Regulation And Regtech: A Concept Article On Realistic Protection For Victims Of Bank Failures, Lawrence G. Baxter

Duke Law Journal

Frustrated by the seeming inability of regulators and prosecutors to hold bank executives to account for losses inflicted by their companies before, during, and since the financial crisis of 2008, some scholars have suggested that private-attorney-general suits such as class action and shareholder derivative suits might achieve better results. While a few isolated suits might be successful in cases where there is provable fraud, such remedies are no general panacea for preventing large-scale bank-inflicted losses. Large losses are nearly always the result of unforeseeable or suddenly changing economic conditions, poor business judgment, or inadequate regulatory supervision—usually a combination of all …

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The Failure Of Counsel: Curial Corruption In Book Vi Of The Vox Clamantis, Robert J. Meindl

Accessus

The king's court is the final element in Gower's analysis of the law in Book VI of the Vox Clamantis prior to the speculum principis that is the book's climax. Having discussed the men of law, judges, sheriffs, jurors, and bailiffs in chapters one through six, the poet now finds fault in chapter seven with the various advisers who surround the king for the purpose of providing him useful counsel in governing the realm. They, too, are found wanting in an analysis of the current situation in England.

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The New York State Constitution And Aid To Church-Related Schools, Charles E. Rice

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

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Sit-In Conduct Held Constitutionally Protected

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

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Payment Of A Fee As An "Electoral Standard" Held Violative Of Fourteenth Amendment

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

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Obscenity - A Re-Evaluation

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

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New York Times V. Sullivan - A Reappraisal

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

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Federal Aid For Children And Teachers In All Schools, T. Raber Taylor

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

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The Child Benefits System In Operation - Federal Style, Hugh L. Carey

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

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The Korean War Through The Eyes Of Ray Deweese, Yulissa Y. Lara

Korean War

Ray DeWeese was born in Cleveland, TN on May 10, 1928 and has lived in Cleveland most of his life. He enlisted in the Marine Corps at 17 years old and fought towards the end of World War II and went off to be a pilot and officer during the Korean War. This interview depicts Mr.DeWeese’s experience during World War II but digs deeper into the difficulty of being a pilot during the brutal Korean War. As Mr. DeWeese recounts his traumatic experience he emphasizes how his diligent training, hardworking comrades, and his Faith in God got him through the …

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