Securities Law Commons^™

Reforming The True-Sale Doctrine, Heather Hughes

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Sg's Brief In Lucia Could Portend The End Of The Alj Program As We Have Known It, Jeffrey Lubbers

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

The Interest Is Not Mutual: Effect Of The Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) On Contractual Rights Of Set-Off, Caroline Woo

The University of Notre Dame Australia Law Review

In Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd v Forge Group Power Pty Ltd (In Liquidation) (Receivers and Managers Appointed), the Supreme Court of Western Australia held that the rights of ANZ, a secured creditor of Forge Group Power Pty Ltd (Forge) holding a security interest under the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (PPSA), trumped Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd’s rights of contractual and equitable set-off. Forge is in receivership and in liquidation. In answering the preliminary issues in dispute between the parties, the Supreme Court examined the complex interaction between contractual and equitable rights, the PPSA and section 553C of the Corporations …

The Perfect Storm Is Brewing Once Again: What Scaling Back Dodd-Frank Will Mean For The Credit Default Swap, Daniel Isaacson

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

The current presidential administration has expressed a concerted desire to “scale back” and even “get rid of” the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd–Frank). Focusing specifically on Dodd–Frank’s regulation of the credit default swap (CDS), this Article explores two timely queries. First, whether Dodd–Frank’s regulatory response to these financial instruments is a justifiable one, and second, what effect a repeal may have. This Article will show that the “perfect storm” CDS—which contributed so significantly to the 2007–2010 financial crisis—flourished in a regulatory environment that contained two key weaknesses: (1) few restrictions on excessive speculation; and (2) the …

Evaluating Stock-Trading Practices And Their Regulation, Merritt B. Fox, Kevin S. Haeberle

Faculty Publications

High-frequency trading, dark pools, and the practices associated with them have come under tremendous scrutiny lately, giving rise to much hot rhetoric. Missing from the discussion, however, is a principled, comprehensive standard for evaluating such practices and the law that governs them. This Article fills that gap by providing a general framework for making serious normative judgments about stock-trading behavior and its regulation. In particular, we argue that such practices and laws should be evaluated with an eye to the secondary trading market's impact on four main aspects of our economy: the use of existing productive capacity, the allocation of …

Much Ado About Nothing: The Limits Of Liability For Item 303 Omissions And The Circuit Split That Never Was, Brian Currie

William & Mary Business Law Review

The implied private action for violations of SEC Rule 10b-5 has a contentious history. When plaintiffs base such actions on representations of forward-looking information, however, the stakes are even higher. Recently, the federal circuit courts revisited this divisive issue while deciding whether an omission from required disclosure of Management’s Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) of financial conditions and results of operations. The apparent disparity between the federal circuit courts has caused great consternation and uncertainty in the corporate legal sphere.

This Note will examine the origins and controversial history of Rule 10b-5 private actions, discuss the treatment of MD&A omissions throughout …

Outside A Black Box: Court And Regulatory Review Of Investment Valuations Of Hard-To-Value Securities, Salvatore Massa

William & Mary Business Law Review

Valuation is a critical function of investment advisers that has significant implications for both clients and advisers. One potential risk associated with valuation is that an investment adviser may abuse its position in valuing portfolio assets to accrue higher management and incentive fees to the detriment of clients. Although the valuation function may be viewed as an objective exercise, adviser valuations become subject to greater levels of discretion for hard-to-value securities, making determinations of adviser abuse less clear. Depending on the transparency of the adviser, the valuation process itself may become a black box to the client. Securities and Exchange …

Information-Dissemination Law: The Regulation Of How Market-Moving Information Is Revealed, Kevin S. Haeberle, M. Todd Henderson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Chinese Regulation Of Issuer Earnings Forecasts: Recommendations For An Ex Ante Legal Framework, Chengxi Yao

William & Mary Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Inclusive Crowdfunding, Andrew A. Schwartz

Utah Law Review

Retail crowdfunding under Title III of the JOBS Act has a fundamental advantage over accredited crowdfunding and intrastate crowdfunding: the value of inclusivity. What that is worth in a given instance may be difficult to calculate, but it is surely more than zero. This is one reason to expect that retail crowdfunding, once it commences, may prove more successful than many commentators anticipate.

Stock-Market Law And The Accuracy Of Public Companies’ Stock Prices, Kevin S. Haeberle

Faculty Publications

The social benefits of more accurate stock prices—that is, stock-market prices that more accurately reflect the future cash flows that companies are likely to produce—are well established. But it is also thought that market forces alone will lead to only a sub-optimal level of stock-price accuracy—a level that fails to obtain the maximum net social benefits, or wealth, that would result from a higher level. One of the principal aims of federal securities law has therefore been to increase the extent to which the stock prices of the most important companies in our economy (public companies) contain information about firms’ …

Introduction: Data Breaches: Moving Forward, Practically, Cindy E. Zuniga

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

Cardozo Law Review de•novo’s online symposium: Data Breaches: Moving Forward, Practically focuses on proactive steps that policymakers, regulators, the judiciary, and businesses can take to address the array of issues arising from data breaches. The online symposium features articles from Lauren Henry, Adam Lamparello, Peter Yu, and David Thaw.

Culture Wars: Rate Manipulation, Institutional Corruption, And The Lost Normative Foundations Of Market Conduct Regulation, Justin O'Brien

Seattle University Law Review

The global investigations into the manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) have raised significant questions about how conflicts of interest are managed for regulated entities contributing to benchmarks. An alternative framework, which brings the management of the rate process under direct regulatory supervision, is under consideration, coordinated by the International Organization of Securities Commissions taskforce. The articulation of global principles builds on a review commissioned by the British government that suggests rates calculated by submission can be reformed. This paper argues that this approach is predestined to fail, precisely because it ignores the lessons of history. In revisiting …

Are Defined Contribution Pension Plans Fit For Purpose In Retirement?, Jeremy R. Cooper

Seattle University Law Review

This Article considers the historical basis for the shift from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans, the structural and practical shortcomings of defined contribution plans, alternate pension models, and adjustments to existing retirement plan models that may offer a degree of protection to plan contributors. Like the United States, Australia is now realizing the limitations of a defined contribution retirement system insofar as it relates the provision of reliable retirement income for a population with increasing life expectancy. Unlike defined contribution plans, defined benefit plans provide a benefit based typically on time served and a predetermined proportion of either …

Is The Independent Director Model Broken?, Roberta S. Karmel

Seattle University Law Review

At common law, an interested director was barred from participating in corporate decisions in which he had an interest, and therefore “dis-interested” directors became desirable. This concept of the disinterested director developed into the model of an “independent director” and was advocated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and court decisions as a general ideal in a variety of situations. This Article explores doubts regarding the model of an “independent director” and suggests that director expertise may be more important that director independence. The Article then discusses shareholder primacy and sets forth alternatives to the shareholder primacy theory of the …

Crowdfunding For Biotechs: How The Sec’S Proposed Rule May Undermine Capital Formation For Startups, Brian J. Farnkoff

Journal of Contemporary Health Law & Policy (1985-2015)

No abstract provided.

The Cost Of Securities Fraud, Urska Velikonja

William & Mary Law Review

Under the dominant account, fraudulent financial reporting by public firms harms the firms' shareholders and, more generally, capital markets. This Article contends that the account is incomplete. In addition to undermining investor confidence, misreporting distorts economic decision making by all firms, both those committing fraud and those not. False information impairs risk assessment by those who provide human or financial capital to fraudulent firms, the firms' suppliers and customers, and thus misdirects capital and labor to subpar projects. Efforts to hide fraud and avoid detection further distort fraudulent firms' business decisions, as well as decisions by their rivals, who mimic …

Scandal Enforcement At The Sec: The Arc Of The Option Backdating Investigations, Stephen Choi, Adam C. Pritchard, Anat C. Wiechman

Law & Economics Working Papers

We study the SEC’s allocation of enforcement resources in the wake of a salient public scandal. We focus on the SEC’s investigations of option backdating in the wake of numerous media articles on the practice of backdating. We find that the SEC shifted its mix of investigations significantly toward backdating investigations and away from investigations involving other accounting issues. We test the hypothesis that SEC pursued more marginal investigations into backdating at the expense of pursuing more egregious accounting issues. Our event study of stock market reactions to the initial disclosure of backdating investigations shows that those reactions declined over …

Maritime Piracy: A Sustainable Global Solution, Paul Williams, Lowry Pressly

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Maritime piracy is a complex transnational security concern characterized by emerging international finance operations and organization, an oversupply of labor, and a low cost of market entry. This article provides a realistic picture of the driving forces behind maritime piracy in areas such as Southeast Asia, the Gulf of Aden, and the Gulf of Guinea. By examining some of the assumptions and proposed solutions in counter-piracy literature and policy, this article exposes some piracy illusions and proposes a sustainable, global response that addresses the persistent threat of modern maritime piracy. Today's manifold piracy challenges call for a multifaceted approach. Accordingly, …

Procedure In Eclipse: Group-Based Adjudication In A Post-Conception Era, Myriam E. Gilles

Articles

No abstract provided.

Insider Trading, Informed Trading, And Market Making: Liquidity Of Securities Markets In The Zero-Sum Game, Stanislav Dolgopolov

William & Mary Business Law Review

This Article reexamines the nexus of relationships among informed transactions, information asymmetry, and liquidity of securities markets in the context of public policy debates about insider trading and its regulation.The Article analyzes this nexus, with the emphasis on recent empirical studies and developments in the securities industry, from a variety of perspectives and considers the validity of the alleged link between insider trading—as opposed to other forms of informed trading—and market liquidity as a justification for the existence of regulation.

Toward Transatlantic Convergence In Financial Regulation, Hwa-Jin Kim

Law & Economics Working Papers

This Article reviews the historical background of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 along with the developments in the markets that led to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999. It analyzes the discussions on the Volcker Rule in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 from a comparative perspective. It shows how the reform in the United States may impact financial institutions and markets in other jurisdictions. Germany and Switzerland, where universal banking is the hallmark of the financial services industry, are the primary jurisdictions of interest. After taking a historical and political look at the regulation of …

Reflections On The Securities Law Of Jordan , Bashar H. Malkawi, Haitham A. Haloush

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reflections On The Securities Law Of Jordan , Bashar H. Malkawi, Haitham A. Haloush

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Punctuated Equilibrium: A Model For Administrative Evolution, Mark Niles

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Are Investors’ Gains And Losses From Securities Fraud Equal Over Time? Theory And Evidence, Alicia J. Davis

Law & Economics Working Papers

Most leading securities regulation scholars argue that compensating securities fraud victims is inefficient. They maintain that because diversified investors that trade frequently are as likely to gain from trading in fraud-tainted stocks as they are to suffer harm from doing so, these investors should have no expected net losses from fraud over the long term. This assertion, which analogizes trading in fraud-tainted stocks to participating in a coin toss game in which players win $1 on heads and lose $1 on tails, is problematic for a number of reasons. First, even if we accept this analogy, probability theory holds that …

Securities Law In The Roberts Court: Agenda Or Indifference?, Adam C. Pritchard

Law & Economics Working Papers

Historically, securities law has not been a high priority for the Supreme Court. The first five years of the Roberts Court, however, suggest an upsurge of interest in the federal securities laws, with nine cases decided, a significant increase from the Rehnquist Court’s average. These numbers are deceptive. Analysis of the opinions deciding these cases – and more importantly, the issues debated by the justices – suggests that the Court is not interested in the substance of the securities laws or the policies that animate them. Instead, securities law serves as a backdrop for debates over statutory interpretation and the …

The Price Of Pay To Play In Securities Class Actions, Stephen Choi, Drew T. Johnson-Skinner, Adam C. Pritchard

Law & Economics Working Papers

This paper studies the effect of campaign contributions to lead plaintiffs — “pay to play’’ — on the level of attorneys’ fees in securities class actions. We find that state pension funds generally pay lower attorneys’ fees when they serve as lead plaintiffs in securities class actions than do individual investors serving in that capacity. This differential disappears, however, when we control for campaign contributions made to officials with influence over state pension funds. Thus, pay to play appears to increase agency costs borne by shareholders in securities class actions.

Betting The Farm: The Tic Turf War And Why Tics Constitute Investment Contracts Under Federal Securities Laws, David Rich

William & Mary Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Breaking Bucks In Money Market Funds, William A. Birdthistle

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article argues that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s first and most significant response to the economic crisis increases rather than decreases the likelihood of future failures in money market funds and the broader capital markets. In newly promulgated regulations addressing the "breaking of the buck" in the $3 trillion money market - a debacle at the fulcrum of the 2008 financial meltdown - the SEC endorses practices that obfuscate rather than illuminate the capital markets, including fixed pricing for money market funds, potentially riskier portfolio requirements, and the continued use of discredited ratings agencies. These policies, premised implicitly upon …