Taxation-Federal Estate and Gift Commons^™

Anna Nicole's Constitutional Estates Law Legacy, Dave Fagundes

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

After Sveen V. Melin, Is There A Contracts Clause Argument Against Laws Retroactively Terminating Child Support Obligations After The Death Of The Obligor Parent?, Diane Kemker

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Dol Fiduciary Rule 3.0 Strikeout, Base Knock, Or Home Run?, Antolin Reiber

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Money Is Morphing - Cryptocurrency Can Morph To Be An Environmentally And Financially Sustainable Alternative To Traditional Banking, Clovia Hamilton

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Survey Evidence In Trademark Actions, Ioana Vasiu And Lucian Vasiu

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Corporate Governance And Compelled Speech: Do State-Imposed Board Diversity Mandates Violate Free Speech?, Salar Ghahramani

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Real Persons Are The Corporations We Made Along The Way, Leonard Brahin

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Shakespeare, Succession, And Estate Planning:Lessons From The Bard, Leslie Kiefer Amann

ACTEC Law Journal

Probated in 1616, Shakespeare's Will is surprisingly relevant today. Two daughters survived him, but his only son died at age 11. Wife and daughters could not inherit a business in the theater, so he made changes in structure of the businesses he owned, and reallocated assets to accommodate the loss of his male heir. Shakespeare left no autobiographical information, but by examining his legal documents, we see him shift a thriving business, dependent on the unique talents and active participation of its founder, to passive assets in modified entity structures and generate an income stream for female descendants. Changes made …

The Dark Side Of Codifying U.S. Trust Law, Thomas P. Gallanis

ACTEC Law Journal

For most of Anglo-American history, trust law was case law. The law of trusts was born and molded in the English Court of Chancery and then re-shaped by the courts of the U.S. states. The U.S. law of trusts primarily was to be found in the decisions of state courts and in respected secondary sources digesting and refining the rules from those decisions, such as the American Law Institute's Restatements and the multi-volume treatises on trust law originally authored by Austin Wakeman Scott or George Gleason Bogert. U.S. trust law no longer is primarily case law. In 2000, the Uniform …

Towards A Review And Reform Of The Gst Tax:Symmetry Of Exemptions, The Reverse Gst Taxelection, And Consistent Inclusion Ratio Reporting, Stephen W. Murphy

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Unintended Consequences Of Fetal Personhood Statutes: Examples From Tax, Trusts, And Estates, Bridget J. Crawford, Alexis C. Borders, Katherine Keating

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The laws of taxation, trusts, and estates are new fronts in the culture wars over abortion. After the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, some anti-abortion states enacted fetal personhood statutes that have the potential to unsettle and destabilize longstanding legal doctrines that otherwise create predictability and stability in the laws of taxation and succession. This Article makes three principal claims: descriptive, predictive, and normative. First, the Article explores how Dobbs opened the door for states like Georgia to treat zygotes-embryos-fetuses as “dependents” for state income tax purposes. Second, the Article identifies some of the …

Artful Imbalance: How The Us Tax Code And State Trust Laws Enable The Growth Of Inequality Through High-Value Art Collections, Mimi Strauss

Brooklyn Law Review

The United States has become the leading jurisdiction for those who wish to buy and store high-value art and NFTs, pay as few taxes as possible, and ultimately secure their wealth for generations. This “onshore” tax crisis is the result of tax loopholes, money laundering, the securitization of art and NFTs, and the state-by-state trust system. These forms of tax dodging—both legal and illegal—contribute to wealth inequality and deplete the welfare state. As natural disasters and pandemics become ever more present, the United States will rely more heavily on taxes, and that burden should be carried by everyone, not just …

Resolving Unfairness In A Fair Way: How The Grantor Trust Rules Should Be Reformed, Aaron T. Anderson

ACTEC Law Journal

Affluent taxpayers often create one or more grantor trusts to achieve significant tax savings. By leveraging mismatches in the rules between the income and estate tax systems, these taxpayers avoid the compressed income tax brackets of trusts while minimizing the property that is included in their estates for estate tax purposes. Some commentators have argued that reform is needed to remove such mismatches. Yet, trusts that rely on the current grantor trust rules abound. This Note (1) provides a background and history of the rules and use of grantor trusts, (2) argues that harmonizing the estate and income tax systems …

The Importance Of Language In The Context Of Heirs' Property Policymaking, Molefi Mcintosh

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Policy Over Doctrine: A Brief History Of Us Trust Law, Lucas Clover-Alcolea

ACTEC Law Journal

US trust law is unique because whereas in English law the settlor drops out of the picture once he has created the trust, in the US the settlor’s intentions remain paramount. This fundamental difference in turn permits the recognition of spendthrift trusts, whereby the beneficial interest cannot be alienated, in the US whereas in England such trusts are generally invalid. Similarly, whereas in English law the beneficiaries of absolute trusts, and on occasion discretionary trusts, can collectively implode the trust by forcing the trustee to convey the trust fund to them via a Saunders v Vautier application, this is generally …

Unpacking The Digital Vault: Estate Planning Considerations For Non-Fungible Tokens, Ryan D. Tosto

ACTEC Law Journal

The purpose of this article is to shed some light on the emerging, yet largely undefined, principle of openness in EU law. After addressing the semantic confusion existing between openness and transparency, it attempts, through a textual and systemic interpretation of their respective legal bases, to identify the normative content of the European Union's turn to openness. It then explores the principle s potential for attaining its declared Treaty-sanctioned objectives: promoting good governance and ensuring the participation of civil society in the democratic life of the Union. It illustrates that, although openness largely maintains an instrumental rationale, aimed at enhancing …

Front Matter

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A History Of Corporate Law Federalism In The Twentieth Century, William W. Bratton

Seattle University Law Review

This Article describes the emergence of corporate law federalism across a long twentieth century. The period begins with New Jersey’s successful initiation of charter competition in 1888 and ends with the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002. The federalism in question describes the interrelation of state and federal regulation of corporate internal affairs. This Article takes a positive approach, pursuing no normative bottom line. It makes six observations: (1) the federalism describes a division of subject matter, with internal affairs regulated by the states and securities issuance and trading regulated by the federal government; (2) the federalism is an …

Reconciling Disjunct Cryptocurrency Securities Enforcement With Purchaser Expectations, Jacob E. Simmons

Seattle University Law Review

The Southern District of New York’s July 2023 decision in SEC v. Ripple Labs, Inc. has been touted as a monumental win for cryptocurrency purchasers and related businesses. The Ripple court held that, except institutional investor transactions, all sales of Ripple’s XRP token were not investment contracts, a class of security subject to federal securities law. The court’s ruling meant that Ripple could not be held liable for the unregistered trading of XRP beyond its sales to institutional investors. Ripple adds new insights to a pervasive policymaking dilemma addressed in this Note: is the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) regulatory …

Stakeholder Capitalism’S Greatest Challenge: Reshaping A Public Consensus To Govern A Global Economy, Leo E. Strine Jr., Michael Klain

Seattle University Law Review

The Berle XIV: Developing a 21st Century Corporate Governance Model Conference asks whether there is a viable 21st Century Stakeholder Governance model. In our conference keynote article, we argue that to answer that question yes requires restoring—to use Berle’s term—a “public consensus” throughout the global economy in favor of the balanced model of New Deal capitalism, within which corporations could operate in a way good for all their stakeholders and society, that Berle himself supported.

The world now faces problems caused in large part by the enormous international power of corporations and the institutional investors who dominate their governance. These …

Foreseeability And Duty In Washington Negligence Law: Leaving The Road Less Traveled By, Leo Linder

Seattle University Law Review

Washington negligence law is a confusing labyrinth of foreseeability that not even Ariadne’s string could guide plaintiffs out of. Foreseeability is implicated in four distinct analyses, several of which overlap considerably. Doctrines that were once questions of law are now questions of fact, and vice versa. Something needs to change.

Washington has taken the novel approach of bifurcating the duty element into two parts—duty’s mere existence, which is a question of law for the court to determine; and duty’s scope, which is a question of fact handed off to the jury to determine. Foreseeability impacts both of these assessments, but …

Henderson And The Objective Observer Standard: The Future Of Race-Conscious Standards Post-Students For Fair Admissions, Gabriela Dionisio

Seattle University Law Review

On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States decided Students for Fair Admissions v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, which struck down race-conscious admissions policies. Within just a year after its ruling, Students for Fair Admissions has already had a sweeping impact, reaching beyond higher education. Although the Supreme Court did not indicate whether Students for Fair Admissions applies to sectors beyond higher education, law firms, and other employers have already modified their diversity policies and initiatives, erasing race and company diversity considerations. Given those dramatic changes, there is growing fear that Students for Fair Admissions …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Same Crime, Different Time: Sentencing Disparities In The Deep South & A Path Forward Under The Fourteenth Amendment, Hailey M. Donovan

Seattle University Law Review

The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. The American obsession with crime and punishment can be tracked over the last half-century, as the nation’s incarceration rate has risen astronomically. Since 1970, the number of incarcerated people in the United States has increased more than sevenfold to over 2.3 million, outpacing both crime and population growth considerably. While the rise itself is undoubtedly bleak, a more troubling truth lies just below the surface. Not all states contribute equally to American mass incarceration. Rather, states have vastly different incarceration rates. Unlike at the federal level, …

Ai, New Technologies, And Corporate Governance: Three Phenomena, Martin Petrin

Seattle University Law Review

Artificial intelligence (AI) and other new technologies are increasingly influencing the operations, business models, and structures of companies. This Article focuses on three emerging phenomena that impact significant aspects of corporate governance and regulation: (1) perforation and blurring of firm boundaries through the ubiquitous use of externally provided AI services; (2) businesses engaging in strategic access and leveraging of critical resources held by third parties without owning them; and (3) the unusual hybrid role of online platforms between market facilitators and markets themselves. The Article explores how these phenomena challenge traditional views of firms as separate units, with technology leading …

A Blueprint To Reclaim Legal Education From External Rankers, Scott Rempell

Seattle University Law Review

The U.S. News & World Report (U.S. News) law school rankings have impacted the perceptions and behaviors of everyone in the rankings ecosystem for decades. Commentators have almost universally condemned these ordinal rankings, yet they continue to influence the legal education market, often in highly detrimental ways.

The influence of these rankings stems from legitimate market demands, for reasons that the psychology of choice literature makes clear. People want (or need) to efficiently acquire and digest information that could help them make consequential decisions. At a time when consumers of law school information did not have such choice-making assistance, U.S. …

Real-World Consequences For Online Actions: The Case For Expanding Employee Harassment Protection Via Employers’ Rights Of Action, Alexander Barnes

Seattle University Law Review

This Note argues for expanding employers’ access to legal remedies that allow them to recoup the costs of protecting their employees from swatting, doxing, and other online harassment arising from their employees’ professional activity. Part I provides a brief description and history of the online harassment problem and its potentially deadly dangers. Part II describes employers’ legal responsibility to take action to protect their employees from harassment aimed at their employees within the scope of their employment. Part III explores common legal remedies that are currently available to employers, using the state of Washington as an example. Part III also …

The Need For Corporate Guardrails In U.S. Industrial Policy, Lenore Palladino

Seattle University Law Review

U.S. politicians are actively “marketcrafting”: the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act collectively mark a new moment of robust industrial policy. However, these policies are necessarily layered on top of decades of shareholder primacy in corporate governance, in which corporate and financial leaders have prioritized using corporate profits to increase the wealth of shareholders. The Administration and Congress have an opportunity to use industrial policy to encourage a broader reorientation of U.S. businesses away from extractive shareholder primacy and toward innovation and productivity. This Article examines discrete opportunities within the …