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Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Leveraging Corporate Law: A Broader Account Of Delaware’S Competition, Christopher M. Bruner

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Not Without Consent: Protecting Consent Rights Against Deliberate Breach, Karen A. Chesley

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cleaning Corporate Governance, Jens Frankenreiter, Cathy Hwang, Yaron Nili, Eric L. Talley

Faculty Scholarship

Although empirical scholarship dominates the field of law and finance, much of it shares a common vulnerability: an abiding faith in the accuracy and integrity of a small, specialized collection of corporate governance data. In this paper, we unveil a novel collection of three decades’ worth of corporate charters for thousands of public companies, which shows that this faith is misplaced.

We make three principal contributions to the literature. First, we label our corpus for a variety of firm- and state-level governance features. Doing so reveals significant infirmities within the most well-known corporate governance datasets, including an error rate exceeding …

Federal Corporate Law And The Business Of Banking, Lev Menand, Morgan Ricks

Faculty Scholarship

The only profit-seeking business enterprises chartered by a federal government agency are banks. Yet there is barely any scholarship justifying this exception to state primacy in U.S. corporate law.

This Article addresses that gap. It reinterprets the National Bank Act (NBA) – the organic statute governing national banks, the heavyweights of the financial sector – as a corporation law and recovers the reasons why Congress wrote this law: not to catalyze private wealth creation or to regulate an existing industry, but to solve an economic governance problem. National banks are federal instrumentalities charged with augmenting the money supply – a …

M&A Advisor Misconduct: A Wrong Without A Remedy?, Andrew F. Tuch

Scholarship@WashULaw

Merger and acquisition ("M&A") transactions are among the most high profile of corporate transactions. They are also among the most contentious, with around eighty percent of all completed deals litigated in recent years. And yet investment banks—essential advisors on these deals—have generally succeeded spectacularly in avoiding liability, an anomaly considering the routine nature of deal litigation and the frequency with which they face lawsuits in their other activities. This article examines this anomaly, explaining the doctrinal and practical reasons why it arises. In doing so, it puts in context aiding and abetting liability, a recently-successful shareholder strategy to bring M&A …

A General Defense Of Information Fiduciaries, Andrew F. Tuch

Scholarship@WashULaw

Countless high-profile abuses of user data by leading technology companies have raised a basic question: should firms that traffic in user data be held legally responsible to their users as “information fiduciaries”? Privacy legislation to impose fiduciary-like duties of care, confidentiality, and loyalty on data collectors enjoys bipartisan support but faces strong opposition from scholars. First, critics argue that the information fiduciary concept flies in the face of fundamental corporate law principles that require firms to prioritize shareholder interests over those of users. Second, it is said that the overwhelming self-interest of digital companies makes fiduciary loyalty impossible as a …

Managing Management Buyouts: A Us-Uk Comparative Analysis, Andrew F. Tuch

Scholarship@WashULaw

This chapter comparatively assesses U.S. and U.K. law governing management buyouts (MBOs), focusing on the duties of directors and officers in these systems. The analysis casts doubt on persistent but mistaken perceptions about U.S. and U.K. corporate fiduciary duties for self-dealing. The U.K. no-conflict rule is seen as strict, the U.S. fairness rule as flexible and pragmatic. As the analysis for MBOs demonstrates, these fiduciary rules operate similarly, tasking neutral or disinterested directors with policing self-dealing, enabling commercially sensitive responses to conflicts of interest. The analysis also reveals stronger formal private enforcement of corporate law and more robust disclosure rules …

Regulating Financial Guarantors, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

To improve financial regulation, scholars have engaged in extensive research over the past decade to try to understand why systemically important financial firms engage in excessive risk-taking. None of that research fully explains, however, the unusually excessive risk-taking by financial guarantors such as bond insurers, protection sellers under credit-default-swap (CDS) derivatives, credit enhancers in securitization transactions, and even issuers of standby letters of credit. With tens of trillions of dollars of financial guarantees outstanding, the potential for failure is massive. This Article argues that financial guarantor risk-taking is influenced by a previously unrecognized cognitive bias, which it calls “abstraction bias.” …

Pension Fiduciaries And Climate Change: A Canadian Perspective, Maziar Peihani

All Faculty Publications

Climate change has emerged as a major issue of financial risk for Canadian pension funds when determining where to place investments. The author argues that while such pension funds recognize climate change as an issue that holds the potential for significant financial risk, the funds’ current approach to climate-related risks faces critical limitations. The author identifies the current practices of the five largest pension funds in Canada when faced with climate-related financial risks, then discusses the key shortcomings in current practices among the pension funds in three main areas.
First, the author examines organizational governance, which seeks to understand investment …

Lending Innovations, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Brooklyn Law Review

This article is about innovations. Startups and their founders in the innovation intensive sectors cannot reach their dreams without financing. They cannot turn to banks for loans. Banks, from community to commercial banks, shun startups due to antiquated banking law, business model and high risks associated with tech lending. But there are outlier banks who disrupt the banking business model with lending innovation, fueling startups with loans that allow tech innovations to occur from Silicon Valley to Route 128 of the northeast corridor, and from Shanghai, China to Herzliya, Israel. With qualitative and quantitative patent data, this article demonstrates how …

Afghanistan's New Vat, Part 1: Invoice Matching Or A Unitary Digital Invoice, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi, Andrew Leahey, Yujin Li, Haseena Rahman

Faculty Scholarship

In the summer of 1990 two groundbreaking articles on business process re-engineering (BPR) were published, one by Thomas H. Davenport (a professor in information technology at Babson College) in the MIT Sloan Management Review, the other by Michael Hammer (a professor of computer science at MIT) in the Harvard Business Review. BPR is a management strategy that analyzes IT-intensive workflow designs and business processes within an organization.

On December 21, 2020 (Jadi 1, 1399) Afghanistan was scheduled to implement a 10% VAT. It has been delayed one year by the pandemic. When it does implement, Afghanistan will have significant workflow …

Enough Is As Good As A Feast, Noah C. Chauvin

Seattle University Law Review

Ipse Dixit, the podcast on legal scholarship, provides a valuable service to the legal community and particularly to the legal academy. The podcast’s hosts skillfully interview guests about their legal and law-related scholarship, helping those guests communicate their ideas clearly and concisely. In this review essay, I argue that Ipse Dixit has made a major contribution to legal scholarship by demonstrating in its interview episodes that law review articles are neither the only nor the best way of communicating scholarly ideas. This contribution should be considered “scholarship,” because one of the primary goals of scholarship is to communicate new ideas.

A False Sense Of Security: How Congress And The Sec Are Dropping The Ball On Cryptocurrency, Tessa E. Shurr

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Today, companies use blockchain technology and digital assets for a variety of purposes. This Comment analyzes the digital token. If the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) views a digital token as a security, then the issuer of the digital token must comply with the registration and extensive disclosure requirements of federal securities laws.

To determine whether a digital asset is a security, the SEC relies on the test that the Supreme Court established in SEC v. W.J. Howey Co. Rather than enforcing a statute or agency rule, the SEC enforces securities laws by applying the Howey test on a fact-intensive …

Bank Resolution And Creditor Distribution: The Tension Shaping Global Banking –Part Ii: The Cross-Border Dimension, David Ramos, Javier Solana

University of Miami Business Law Review

New bank resolution frameworks that aim to address the complex task of managing the collapse of a large financial institution stand in considerable tension with basic principles and policy objectives of insolvency law. In this two-part study, we present an analytical framework that aims at helping us understand how this tension can undermine the effectiveness of the new bank resolution frameworks. In the first part of this article, we introduced our three-layered framework and explored its first two layers: the group dimension, and the duality of crisis-prevention and crisis-management tools. In this Part II, we explore the last layer: the …

Airdrops: “Free” Tokens Are Not Free From Regulatory Compliance, Bridgett S. Bauer Esq.

University of Miami Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Shareholder Value(S): Index Fund Esg Activism And The New Millennial Corporate Governance, Michal Barzuza, Quinn Curtis, David H. Webber

Faculty Scholarship

Major index fund operators have been criticized as ineffective stewards of the firms in which they are now the largest shareholders. While scholars debate whether this passivity is a serious problem, index funds’ generally docile approach to ownership is broadly acknowledged.
/="/">
/="/">However, this Article argues that the notion that index funds are passive owners overlooks an important dimension in which index funds have demonstrated outspoken, confrontational, and effective stewardship. Specifically, we document that index funds have taken a leading role in challenging management and voting
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The Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act: The Double-Edged Sword Of U.S. Foreign Investment Regulations, J. Russell Blakey

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unmasking The Villain: Exposing Scammers’ Identities To Defeat Harmful Calls, Katherine Teng

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Since 1991, Congress has attempted to limit unwanted phone calls through legislative efforts. However, past and current laws remain ineffective as scam call complaints continue to increase while the harm of these calls remains severe. Currently, the laws affecting telecommunication regulation focus on reactive measures rather than preventative solutions. Most recently, Congress has passed the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, which will require telecommunication companies to implement SHAKEN/STIR technology to end scam calls before they reach consumers. While this is the most progressive legislation addressing scam calls, this Note will suggest that phone numbers be registered to …

“Estonia’S Gift To The World”: The Implementation Of A Blockchain Protocol For Corporate Governance In New York, Sydney Lauren Abualy

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

The traditional procedures of corporate governance are not designed to resolve issues related to close outcomes of corporate votes, empty voting practices, the proxy voting protocol, verification of shareholder identities, and access to corporate records. Blockchain technology allows all corporate shareholders to participate in corporate governance more conveniently, with increased transparency, on a secure network. Estonia sought to revolutionize corporate governance by facilitating the development of a blockchain based e-voting protocol for shareholders of companies listed on the Tallinn Stock Exchange to vote in shareholder meetings. After unsuccessful attempts, New York stands well behind other states, such as Delaware, in …

Revising The Debt Limit For “Small Business Debtors”: The Legislative Half-Measure Of The Small Business Reorganization Act, Michael C. Blackmon

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Bankruptcy law changed drastically in 2019 with the passage of several bills. This Note will examine two of them. First, the Family Farmer Relief Act of 2019 raised the debt limit of the family farmer from $4,411,400 to $10,000,000. This enables more financially distressed family farmers to be eligible for Chapter 12 relief, a reorganizational tool designed for farmers. Second, the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 created Subchapter V – Small Business Debtor Reorganization in Chapter 11. This new Subchapter streamlined the reorganization process for small business debtors by removing roadblocks which often derail a reorganization of a small …

The Criminal, Regulatory, And Civil Issues Surrounding Intellectual Property And Cybersecurity, Ernest Edward Badway, Christie Mcguinness

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Cyber-attacks have affected all organizations and individual consumers. Dissemination of relevant information and attention to strong information security practices is an important tool in fighting this cyber “pandemic.” Additionally, the legal and regulatory liability companies face from cyber-attacks as well as general strategies and practical solutions companies may implement to protect against cyber-intrusions and respond effectively in the event of an attack are considered. There are many iterations of cyber-crime, and we address the various methods cybercriminals use and the many ways cyber-attacks can take place, as well as the entities and victims affected. Moreover, the legal liability and regulatory …

A Taxonomy Of Cryptocurrency Enforcement Actions, Peter J. Henning

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

This article looks at how the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have pursued cases involving cryptocurrencies. A number of prosecutions have been brought against defendants who misled investors into believing that they were obtaining cryptocurrencies when in fact there were simply false statements and schemes to defraud, such as Ponzi schemes. When a company has attempted to issue a cryptocurrency to investors, the SEC has relied on Section 5(a) and 5(c) of the Securities Act of 1933 to require that issuers file a registration statement with the Commission. This is not an easy process …

Front Matter, Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

Front matter for Volume 9, Issue 2 of the Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review.

Little Power Struggles Everywhere: Attacks On The Administrative State At The Securities And Exchange Commission, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Delaware's New Competition, William J. Moon

Northwestern University Law Review

According to the standard account in American corporate law, states compete to supply corporate law to American corporations, with Delaware dominating the market. This “competition” metaphor in turn informs some of the most important policy debates in American corporate law.

This Article complicates the standard account, introducing foreign nations as emerging lawmakers that compete with American states in the increasingly globalized market for corporate law. In recent decades, entrepreneurial foreign nations in offshore islands have used permissive corporate governance rules and specialized business courts to attract publicly traded American corporations. Aided in part by a select group of private sector …

Uk & Ksa Vats: A Cutting-Edge Proposal – Mini-Blockchain And Vatcoin, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi, Mike Cheetham

Faculty Scholarship

This paper develops, extends, and clarifies themes introduced in five prior papers dealing with blockchain, and VATCoin in the context of both (a) the new VATs in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and (b) the mature VATs in the EU. Five additional papers on VAT technology advances in Fiji, with blockchain and VATCoin applications to New Zealand’s approach to online sales platforms (the Netlix Tax) are similarly referenced and extended. The GCC VAT papers were exploratory. For the most part, they were composed before any GCC jurisdiction had implemented a VAT, and in three instances even before the GCC Framework …

Corporate Law And The Myth Of Efficient Market Control, William Wilson Bratton, Simone M. Sepe

Articles

In recent times, there has been an unprecedented shift in power from managers to shareholders, a shift that realizes the long-held theoretical aspiration of market control of the corporation. This Article subjects the market control paradigm to comprehensive economic examination and finds it wanting.

The market control paradigm relies on a narrow economic model that focuses on one problem only: management agency costs. With the rise of shareholder power, we need a wider lens that also takes in market prices, investor incentives, and information asymmetries. General equilibrium (GE) theory provides that lens. Several lessons follow from reference to this higher-order …

Cryptocommunity Currencies, J. S. Nelson

Cornell Law Review

What are cryptocurrencies: securities, commodities, or something else? Maybe they are a new form of established currency-a non-sovereign fiat currency. Like other self-governing bodies, the communities that issue cryptocurrencies should be judged on how well they support their currencies. This analysis is not meaningfully different from how we have evaluated traditional sovereign issuers of currency. Indeed, as traditional-sovereign-issued currency becomes entirely digital, functional distinctions between traditionally sovereign-backed flat currency and widely accepted non-sovereign fat currency start to disappear. The primary way then to distinguish the value of such currencies from each other becomes the quality of their institutional backing. Through …