Banking and Finance Law Commons^™

Crowdfunding Without The Crowd, Darian M. Ibrahim

Faculty Publications

The final crowdfunding rules took three years for the Securites and Exchange Commission to pass, but crowdfunding—the offering of securities over the Internet—is now a reality. But now that crowdfunding is legal, will it be successful? Will crowdfunding be a regular means by which new companies raise money, or will it be relegated to a wasteland of the worst startups and foolish investors? This Article argues that crowdfunding has a greater chance of success if regulators abandon the idea that the practice does (and should) employ “crowd-based wisdom.” Instead, I argue that crowdfunding needs intermediation by experts that mirrors the …

Getting Specific About The Policy And Tools Of Securities Regulation: A Limited Response To Diversifying To Mitigate Risk: Can Dodd–Frank Section 342 Help Stabilize The Financial Sector?, Joan Macleod Heminway

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

No abstract provided.

Violence Taxes: New Way To Recoup And Prevent The Costs Of Gun Violence? Or New Method To Destroy Business And Competitiveness?, Joseph R. Buoscio Jr.

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

In Retrospect Of 40 Years, Another Look At Andrews' Personal Deductions Argument: A Comparison Of Charitable Contributions And Child-Care Expenses, Limor Riza

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Centralization Of The Banking Industry: Dodd-Frank's Impact On Community Banks And The Need For Both Regulatory Relief And An Overhaul Of The Current Framework, Bryce W. Newell

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Halliburton Ii: A Missed Opportunity To Right The Wrong In Rule 10b-5 Based Class Actions, Erich L. Schmitz

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Continuing Conundrum Of Mistakes: Where The Dodd-Frank Act Went Wrong, Shipra Mehta

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Three Cheers For Three Tiers: Why The Three-Tier System Maintains Its Legal Validity And Social Benefits After Granholm, Roni Elias

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Investment-Environment Disputes: Challenges And Proposals, Mohamed F. Sweify

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

No abstract provided.

America's Consumer Financial Sheriff And The Horse It Rides Are Under Fire, David Reiss

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

Dodd-Frank implemented regulations that work very well in the consumer credit markets. It created a regulator, the CFPB, that has been very effective at keeping the bad guys out of those markets. The Financial CHOICE Act will seriously weaken the CFPB. It will gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and return us to the Wild West days of the early 2000s where predatory lenders could prey on the elderly and the uneducated, knowing that there was no sheriff in town to stop ‘em.

Maintaining Individual Liability In Aml And Cybersecurity At New York's Financial Institutions, Harry Dixon

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Ecological Economics And Sport Stadium Public Financing, Christopher M. Mcleod, John T. Holden

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Given the recent importance that sport organizations, academics, and the public have placed on environmental sustainability this Article introduces the study of ecological economics—founded upon Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen’s application of thermodynamics to economics—to legal perspectives on public financing. The authors argue that the economic growth limits implied by thermodynamic principles should be incorporated in the public financing of sport stadiums. More specifically, municipalities can require facilities receiving public financing to produce environmental cost accounting reports and to make them publically available.

A “Green” Approach To Hedge Fund Regulation And Reform, Matthew Keehn

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Going … Going … Public? Taking A United States Professional Sports League Public, Ian A. Mclin

William & Mary Business Law Review

The four major American professional sports leagues—the MLB, NBA, NHL, and NFL—are wildly popular, but the leagues fail to capitalize fully on their success because they are organized in a largely inefficient manner. By organizing as unincorporated non-profits, leagues forgo their ability to raise capital via investors, forcing taxpayers to bear the burden of league investments such as new stadium construction. Further, the current organizational model creates a collective action problem, as self-interested team owners focus their support on actions that benefit their own franchise and leave ineffective commissioners in power.

A solution to these problems is for a professional …

Compensation For Expropriations In A World Of Investment Treaties: Beyond The Lawful/Unlawful Distinction, Steven Ratner

Law & Economics Working Papers

When a state expropriates a foreign investment in violation of a bilateral or other treaty on investment protection and a foreign investor sues, where should a tribunal look for the standard of compensation -- to the amount specified in the treaty, to an external standard for violations of internationally law generally, or elsewhere? Investor-state tribunals have offered wildly different answers to this question, trapped in a paradigm set by the Permanent Court of International Justice ninety years ago that distinguishes between so-called lawful and unlawful expropriations. This article evaluates and criticizes the caselaw of tribunals and proposes a new framework …

Corporations And Human Life, Frank Partnoy

Seattle University Law Review

In Part I, I address decision-making. How should risk to human life be included in the jurisprudence of corporate decision-making? In terms of finance, how should corporations make net present value decisions when risk to human life is a factor? In terms of law, is there a case for exceptions to the business judgment rule based on risk to human life? Second, in Part II, I address oversight. How should risk to human life be included in the jurisprudence of oversight? In terms of finance, how should corporations approach risk management when human life is a factor? In terms of …

Social Enterprise And Investment Professionals: Sacrificing Financial Interests?, J. Haskell Murray

Seattle University Law Review

Over the past decade, more than three dozen jurisdictions in the United States passed some form of social enterprise legislation. Social enterprise statutes allow for the formation of for-profit entities that expressly require directors to consider the interests of corporate constituents beyond merely shareholders. Proponents of these social enterprise statutes argue that such statutes are needed because traditional corporate law prevents sacrificing the financial interests of shareholders in the interest of a broader social good, or in the interest of other stakeholders. Recently, social enterprises have started exploring public markets and showing up on the radar of investment professionals, including …

Financing The Benefit Corporation, Dana Brakman Reiser, Steven A. Dean

Seattle University Law Review

The hybrid organizational forms designed with social enterprises in mind have proven to be hothouse flowers. Flourishing in state legislatures, even those with the most distinguished pedigrees—such as Delaware’s public benefit corporation—have so far failed to thrive in the marketplace. Fortunately, hybrid financial instruments offer a source of strength and stability that can help social enterprise to take root. This Article examines the valuable role that financial instruments can play in providing social enterprises with the capital they need to grow. Debt with equity features and equity with debt characteristics constitute the lion’s share of such financial tools. More exotic …

In Pursuit Of Good & Gold: Data Observations Of Employee Ownership & Impact Investment, Christopher Geczy, Jessica S. Jeffers, David K. Musto, Anne M. Tucker

Seattle University Law Review

A startup’s path to self-sustaining profitability is risky and hard, and most do not make it. Venture capital (VC) investors try to improve these odds with contractual terms that focus and sharpen employees’ incentives to pursue gold. If the employees and investors expect the startup to balance the goal of profitability with another goal—the goal of good—the risks are likely to both grow and multiply. They grow to the extent that profits are threatened, and they multiply to the extent that balancing competing goals adds a dimension to the incentive problem. In this Article, we explore contracting terms specific to …

Balancing The Governance Of Financial Institutions, David Min

Seattle University Law Review

Part I briefly describes the traditional agency–cost approach to corporate governance and the rationale that is offered for elevating the agency–cost concerns of shareholders over those of other stakeholders (especially creditors). But as Part I goes on to argue, even if this justification for shareholder primacy is convincing in corporate governance generally (and there are many who do not find it so), several unique characteristics of banks obviate the reasoning behind shareholder primacy. Banks are highly leveraged, which exacerbates creditor–shareholder agency conflicts and places greater importance on the interests of creditors. Banks enjoy government guarantees, and thus their corporate governance …

Priority Of Condominium Associations’ Assessment Liens Vis–À–Vis Mortgages: Navigating In The Super-Priority Lien Jurisdictions, Aušra Gaigalaitė

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will discuss the issues concerning laws regulating lien priority in association foreclosure sales and argue that lenders, because they are in the best position to do so, should implement proactive strategies to protect their interests in association foreclosures. Part I provides an overview of uniform law development and a history of Washington’s governing laws with a focus on recent problems relating to association lien priority. Part II presents analysis of the important court decisions applying the lien priority statute and discussion regarding current and proposed Washington law. Finally, Part III discusses potential solutions lenders should implement to balance …

The Impact Of Recent Sec Financial Reporting Probes On Shareholder Wealth: Companies, Competitors, And Consequences, Stephen Warde

Honors Projects in Finance

During an undergraduate college career, an accounting major devotes a great part of his or her time to learning how publicly traded businesses prepare financial statements in compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and federal securities laws. These accounting principles, standards, and procedures are ultimately enforced by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to protect investors, uphold fair markets, and promote public trust in the capital market system. To fulfill its mission, the SEC Division of Enforcement conducts investigations into possible violations of the federal securities laws and administers enforcement actions. Naturally, SEC investigations and the anticipation of …

A Complicated Alchemy: Theorizing Identity Politics And The Politicization Of Migrant Remittances Under Donald Trump's Presidency, Stephen Wilks

Cornell International Law Journal

Using law to conscript financial technology in aid of state goals is not new. Financial institutions have long been subject to myriad legal and regulatory reporting requirements designed to combat money laundering, enforce economic sanctions, support tax compliance, and interdict the financing of terrorism. Trump's particular approach to this tradition, however, seeks to capitalize on a particularly toxic convergence of race, class, economics, and globalization. America is not alone in its recent experience with surges in right wing, nationalist populism. Globalism's winds have posed challenges to those who have enjoyed the benefits of protectionist trade policies that no longer exist, …

Finance And Growth: The Legal And Regulatory Implications Of The Role Of The Public Equity Market In The United States, Ezra Wasserman Mitchell

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

The important study of the relationship between finance and economic growth has exploded over the past two decades. One of the most significant open questions is the role of the public equity market in stimulating growth and the channels it follows if it does. This paper examines that question from an economic, legal, and historical perspective, especially with regard to its regulatory and corporate governance implications. The US market is my focus.

In contrast to most studies, I follow both economic history and the actual flow of funds in addition to empirics and theory to conclude that the public equity …

Bitcoin's Growing Pains: Intermediation And The Need For An Effective Loss Allocation Mechanism, Andrew Kang

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

This paper examines a phenomenon largely overlooked in existing literature: as Bitcoin matures into a mainstream consumer payments system with the rise of intermediation and hosted wallet services, it is slowly transforming from a purely decentralized peer-to-peer currency into something that (ironically) more closely resembles the bank-intermediated payment systems of the past. This paper explains how this transformation creates complicated issues of loss allocation not anticipated by Bitcoin’s founder. Further, it argues for the need of an effective legal mechanism to efficiently and fairly allocate losses between intermediaries and users. The first section of this paper will explain how Bitcoin …

The Cfpb Is A Champion For Americans Across The Country, David J. Reiss

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Is There A Bipartisan Fix For Fannie And Freddie?, David J. Reiss

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

It is welcome news to hear that Senators Corker (R-TN) and Warner (D-VA) are looking to craft a bipartisan solution to the problem of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two massive mortgage companies have been in conservatorship since 2008 when they were on the verge of failing. At that time, nobody, just nobody, believed that they would still be in conservatorship ten years later.

Housing finance reform requires statesmanship because there are no short-term gains that will accrue to the politicians that lead it. And the long -term gains will be very diffuse – nobody will praise them for …

Doux Commerce, Religion, And The Limits Of Antidiscrimination Law, Nathan B. Oman

Indiana Law Journal

This Article addresses the question of law, religion, and the market directly. It does so by developing three theories of how one might conceptualize the proper relationship between commerce and religion. The first two theories I offer are not meant to be summaries of any position explicitly articulated by any particular thinker. There is a paucity of explicit reflection on the question of markets and reli-gion and virtually no effort to generate broad legal theories of that relationship. Rather, these theories are an attempt to explicitly articulate clusters of intuitions that seem to travel together. My hope is to show …

The Path Of The Blockchain Lexicon (And The Law), Angela Walch

Faculty Articles

The terminology around blockchain technology is notoriously confusing, with disputes over whether a blockchain is the same as a distributed ledger or whether an appcoin is the same as a protocol token. In this article, I examine the difficulties the rapidly shifting, contested vocabulary poses for regulators seeking to understand, govern, and potentially use blockchain technology, and I offer suggestions for how to fight through the haze of unclear language.

I provide examples of the fluctuating, contested language in the blockchain technology space and describe the forces at play in shaping the language. I then lay out the problems the …