Law Commons^™

Reforming Securities Litigation Reform: A Proposal For Restructuring The Relationship Between Public And Private Enforcement Of Rule 10b-5, Amanda M. Rose

Amanda M Rose

Forthcoming in Columbia Law Review, Vol. 108, No. 6 (Oct. 2008)

For years, commentators have debated how to reform the controversial Rule 10b-5 class action, without pausing to ask whether the game is worth the candle. Is private enforcement of Rule 10b-5 worth preserving, or might we be better off with exclusive public enforcement? This fundamental and neglected question demands attention today more than ever. An academic consensus has now emerged that private enforcement of Rule 10b-5 cannot be defended on compensatory grounds, at least in its most common form (a fraud-on-the-market class action brought against a non-trading issuer). That …

Juvenile Transfer Laws: An Effective Deterrent To Delinquency?, Richard Redding

Richard E. Redding

Provides an overview of research on the deterrent effects of transferring youth from juvenile to criminal courts, focusing on large-scale comprehensive OJJDP-funded studies on the effect of transfer laws on recidivism. The Bulletin reviews all of the extant research on the general and specific deterrent effects of transferring juveniles to adult criminal court.

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. …

The Cy Pres Problem And The Role Of Damages In Tort Law, Goutam U. Jois

Goutam U Jois

Class action litigation presents a common problem that has received little discussion in the academic literature. In almost every case, the plaintiff class’s recovery is not fully distributed. For example, all possible plaintiffs may not come forward with their claims, the plaintiffs may not be ascertainable, or claims may not be timely submitted. Administrators are regularly posed with the problem of what to do with these residual funds. Currently, courts are free to do virtually anything with such funds. The system is ad hoc, unpredictable, and unguided by any normative principle. In these cases, I propose that the funds should …