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Investors As International Law Intermediaries: Using Shareholder Proposals To Enforce Human Rights, Kishanthi Parella

Scholarly Articles

One of the biggest challenges with international law remains its enforcement. This challenge grows when it comes to enforcing international law norms against corporations and other business organizations. The United Nations Guiding Principles recognizes the “corporate responsibility to respect human rights,” which includes human rights due diligence practices that are adequate for “assessing actual and potential human rights impacts, integrating and acting upon the findings, tracking responses, and communicating how impacts are addressed.” Unfortunately, many corporations around the world are failing to implement adequate human rights due diligence practices in their supply chains. This inattention leads to significant harms for …

Delaware's Global Competitiveness, William J. Moon

Faculty Scholarship

For about a hundred years, Delaware has been the leading jurisdiction for corporate law in the United States. The state, which deliberately embarked on a mission to build a haven for corporate law in the early twentieth century, now supplies corporate charters to over two thirds of Fortune 500 companies and a growing share of closely held companies. But Delaware’s domestic dominance masks the important and yet underexamined issue of whether Delaware maintains its competitive edge globally.

This Article examines Delaware’s global competitiveness, documenting Delaware’s surprising weakness competing in the emerging international market for corporate charters. It does so principally …

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Seattle University Law Review

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Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

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Regulating Multinational Corporations In International Investment Law And Arbitration: Towards Limiting The Treaty Shopping, Sharaf Khaled Alsharaf

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the limitations of treaty shopping in international investment law and arbitration by recognizing some steps and factors that states, especially developing states, and arbitral tribunals may consider regarding the purpose and objective of investment agreements and contracting states’ viewpoints. The focus is solely on the multinational corporation as a corporate investor. To understand these limitations, this study has divided the topic through three separate research questions. The first question is how a state can regulate MNCs in a way that limits their ability to practice treaty shopping, whether domestically or internationally via BITs or regional investment agreement, …

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.

Modernizing The Fair And Equitable Treatment Standards In The Energy Charter Treaty, Sydney Thurman-Baldwin

University of Miami Business Law Review

As oil and gas continue to be hot commodities for national economies, the number of international arbitrations in the energy sector has continued to rise in recent years. As the utilization of International Arbitration continues to rise in Energy disputes, so does the invocation of The Energy Charter Treaty (“ECT”). The ECT promotes inter-governmental cooperation with contracting parties in the energy sector through its provisions on investment protection, provisions on trade, transit of energy, energy efficiency, environmental protection and dispute resolution. These provisions are considered to be the cornerstone of the treaty, fostering a ‘level playing field’ for foreign investments …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

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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.

Can Soft Words Lead To Strong Deeds? A Comparative Analysis Of Corporate Human Rights Commitments’ Enforcement, Adeline Michoud

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

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 …

Compliance As An Exchange Of Legitimacy For Influence, In The Oxford Handbook Of Global Legal Pluralism (Paul Schiff Berman Ed., 2020), Kishanthi Parella

Books and Chapters

This chapter explains that business actors comply with legally nonbinding institutions because of an exchange between legitimacy and influence. Specifically, the information effects produced by both binding and nonbinding institutions can cause reputational damage to a company. To regain its legitimacy, that company associates itself with a more reputable organization than itself, regaining legitimacy through that association. However, that association often comes at a price. In exchange for conferring legitimacy, the external organization will promote its own institutions for the company’s adoption. Companies therefore adopt these institutions in order to credibly signal the quality of their association with the external …

Delaware's New Competition, William J. Moon

Faculty Scholarship

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 …

In Memory Of Professor James E. Bond, Janet Ainsworth

Seattle University Law Review

Janet Ainsworth, Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law: In Memory of Professor James E. Bond.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Global Investor-Director Survey On Climate Risk Management, Jens Frankenreiter, Kristin Bresnahan, Sophie L'Helias, Brea Hinricks, Nina Hodzic, Julian Nyarko, Sneha Pandya, Eric Talley

Scholarship@WashULaw

Changes in the global climate are having profound impacts on business operations, governance, and organizational management around the world. Boards of directors are searching for ways to account for these changes as they help guide their organizations, and investors are increasingly concerned about how these changes might impact their portfolios. This global survey, conducted by a team of researchers at the Ira M. Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership at Columbia Law School and experts at LeaderXXchange, seeks to understand how — if at all — institutional investors and board directors incorporate climate-related issues in their investment decision …

Rethinking The Regulatory Sandbox For Financial Innovation: An Assessment Of The Uk And Singapore, Christopher Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

After the UK launched the first regulatory sandbox regime in 2016, the approach was quickly transplanted to numerous other countries as a means of promoting innovation, improving competition and enhancing financial inclusion. However, it remains unclear whether the approach can effectively achieve the relevant policy goals and thus justify the differential regulatory treatment. This chapter provides a broad overview of the regulatory sandbox regime and examines its potential benefits and problems. The chapter then provides some empirical evidence by analyzing the sandboxes awarded in the UK and Singapore between 2016 and 2018 with the aim of identifying what the businesses …

Washington’S 'Cutting-Edge' Solution To Combat Sales Tax Fraud, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Robert Chicoine, Andrew Leahey, Sunder Gee

Faculty Scholarship

Globally, consumption tax compliance (value added tax and retail sales tax) has gone digital – digital invoices are becoming mandatory, centralized monitoring of transactions and tax payments are increasingly common, and artificial intelligence is assessing fraud risks in real-time. When tax is collected, it is increasingly being remitted in near-real-time. This is the trajectory for the modern retail sales tax (RST) imposed by most states in the US. While this may appear to be revolutionary to the average American, it is a well-worn path among global nations using the value added tax (VAT). The RST will eventually be following suit. …

Data First, Tax Next: How Fiji’S Technology Can Improve New Zealand’S ‘Netflix Tax’ (Part 4), Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

This is the fourth paper examining the recent amendments to the New Zealand Goods and Services Tax (GST); amendments that are collectively known as the Netflix Tax. These papers assess the effectiveness of the Netflix provisions, and how they could be enhanced if New Zealand adopted the technology and vision of Fiji’s VAT Monitoring System (VMS). The Netflix provisions were effective, July 1, 2017.

This final paper considers: (a) the treatment of domestic agents when they are used by remote service providers to facilitate sales to New Zealand customers; (b) how New Zealand intends to respond to resident consumers who …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Data First, Tax Next: How Fiji’S Technology Can Improve New Zealand’S 'Netflix Tax' Part 3 (Electronic Marketplaces), Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Chang Che

Faculty Scholarship

This is the third paper examining the recent amendments to the New Zealand Goods and Services Tax (GST) that are commonly known as the Netflix Tax. A fourth paper will follow.

The importance and complexity of dealing with electronic marketplaces has made an independent paper on electronic marketplaces necessary. Taken together this set of four papers assess the effectiveness of the Netflix provisions, and how they can be enhanced by adopting the technology and vision of Fiji’s VAT Monitoring System (VMS). The Netflix provisions were effective, July 1, 2017.

This paper considers rules that allocate the responsibility for collecting, reporting …

Human Rights Law And The Investment Treaty Regime, Jesse Coleman, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Lise Johnson

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In its current form, the international investment treaty regime may stymie the business and human rights agenda in various ways. The regime may incentivize governments to favour the protection of investors over the protection of human rights. Investment treaty standards enforced through investor-state arbitration risk adversely affecting access to justice for project-affected rights holders. More broadly, the regime contributes to a system of global economic governance that elevates and rewards investors’ actions and expectations, irrespective of whether they have adhered to their responsibilities to respect human rights. Without comprehensive reform, investment treaties and investor-state arbitration will continue to interfere with …

Data First, Tax Next: How Fiji’S Technology Can Improve New Zealand’S 'Netflix Tax' (Part 2), Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

This is the second in a four-part series addressing VAT/GST avoidance schemes involving remote sales of services. These schemes have been growing in importance. The IMF reports that the services component of cross-border trade has been on the rise for fifty-years or more, making the Internet a serious threat to revenue. Technology has accelerated tax avoidance.

Statutory draftsmen in New Zealand have looked at this problem directly with what has been called the Netflix Tax. Technologist in Fiji have been struggling with similar problems and have developed technology-based security systems that would seem to address remote sales of services more …

Data First, Tax Next: How Fiji’S Technology Can Improve New Zealand’S 'Netflix Tax' (Part 1), Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Over the past decade the VAT in the South Pacific has been changing. More change is coming. Change is needed in both the larger economies (Australia and New Zealand) and the smaller ones (the Pacific Island Countries or PICs). The changes we see currently are propelled by cross-border remote sales of services and low-value goods.

The government response in the South Pacific is not uniform. The larger economies have relied on statutory remedies; the smaller economies are turning to technology. The larger economies are crafting complex, extra-territorial compliance provisions targeting remote sellers. The smaller economies are mandating secure digital invoices, …

Divestasi Pt. Freeport Indonesia, Erni Yoesr Yoesry

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Indonesia’s natural resources potential especially in mining sector make it becomes hunted by foreign investor, one of them is PT. Freeport Indonesia. Freeport operates in Indonesia under a Contract of Work (KK) which was signed in 1967. In this contract of work, all management and operational matters are handed over to miners. The state has no control over the operation of the company. The State would only receive royalties of the amount that has been determined in contract of work. Mining companies that want to export processed minerals (concentrates) ought to relinquish the status of contract of work into a …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Corporate Criminal Liability: Toward A Compliance-Orientated Approach, Gustavo A. Jimenez

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Under U.S. federal law, a corporation can be held criminally liable for the crimes of its employees and agents. The Department of Justice's U.S. Attorneys' Manual lays out a list of factors prosecutors can evaluate when deciding whether or not to prosecute a corporate entity. The Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors have various tools at their disposal, including deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) and non-prosecution agreements (NPAs) as alternatives to going to trial. Prosecutors have used DPAs and NPAs in recent cases, allowing the government to ensure that corporate entities comply with investigations, enact compliance programs, and continue to follow laws …

Improving Human Rights Compliance In Supply Chains, Kishanthi Parella

Scholarly Articles

Corporations try to convince us that they are good global citizens: “brands take stands” by engaging in cause philanthropy; CEOs of prominent corporations tackle a variety of issues; and social values drive marketing strategies for goods and services. But despite this rhetoric, corporations regularly fall short in their conduct. This is especially true in supply chains where a number of human rights abuses frequently occur. One solution is for corporations to engage in meaningful human rights due diligence that involves monitoring human rights, reporting on social and environmental performance, undertaking impact assessments, and consulting with groups whose human rights they …

Securing The Nation Or Entrenching The Board? The Evolution Of Cfius Review Of Corporate Acquisitions, Amy Deen Westbrook

Marquette Law Review

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews transactions based on national security concerns, has recently become critical to the operation of the U.S. economy. In March of 2018, CFIUS review led to the prohibition of Broadcom Limited’s acquisition of Qualcomm Corp., which would have been the largest technology merger in history. In August of 2018, CFIUS was dramatically expanded with the enactment of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA). Major transactions must now reckon with the uncertainties of CFIUS review.

Created over thirty years ago as a reporting and monitoring committee, …

Corporations And Sustainability, Beate Sjåfjell, Christopher Bruner

Scholarly Works

This chapter introduces the Handbook, providing an overview of its aims and structure, as well as the core research questions that the contributions to it collectively address. It discusses sustainability-related problems associated with the legal form of the corporation, and provides background on state-of-the-art research in natural sciences and other relevant fields that inform our understanding of sustainability. It concludes with specific research questions and a presentation of the Handbook’s structure.