A National Mineral Policy As An International Investment Law Stratagem: The Case Of Tajikistan's Gold Reserves,
2014
Barry University
A National Mineral Policy As An International Investment Law Stratagem: The Case Of Tajikistan's Gold Reserves, Nadia B. Ahmad
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Third Party Funding Of Personal Injury Tort Claims: Keep The Baby And Change The Bathwater,
2014
Chicago-Kent College of Law
Third Party Funding Of Personal Injury Tort Claims: Keep The Baby And Change The Bathwater, Terrence Cain
Chicago-Kent Law Review
In the early 1990s, a period of high-risk lending at high interest rates, a new entrant emerged in civil litigation: the Litigation Finance Company (“LFC”). LFCs advance money to plaintiffs involved in contingency fee litigation. The money is provided on a non-recourse basis, meaning the plaintiff repays the LFC only if she obtains money from the lawsuit through a settlement, judgment, or verdict. If the plaintiff recovers nothing, she will not owe the LFC anything. When she does repay the LFC, however, she could end up paying as much as 280% of the amount advanced by the LFC. As one …
An Economic Perspective On Subprime Lending,
2014
Chicago-Kent College of Law
An Economic Perspective On Subprime Lending, Michael H. Anderson
Chicago-Kent Law Review
This article aims to provide a concise economic overview of several interesting subprime financing mechanisms, which are becoming increasingly common on the U.S. financial landscape. In particular, rent-to-own, payday lending, pawn broking, and (vehicle) title loans are considered. Generally speaking, a common thread with these loans is their relatively small size and short duration as well as the absence of a credit check or any of the traditional processes for determining credit-worthiness. Due to the ready availability of these loans, they appeal to low-income consumers, including the “working poor,” and to those who have suffered financial setbacks. Because the natural …
Who Owns The Mirage? Comments On A Recent Chinese Securitization Case From A Comparative Perspective,
2014
Fudan University School of Law (Shanghai, China)
Who Owns The Mirage? Comments On A Recent Chinese Securitization Case From A Comparative Perspective, Lingyun Gao
Global Business Law Review
With China's restrictions on directly granting loans to real estate companies and the restrictions on establishing cash trusts, the trust companies had been seeking alternatives to engage in real estate investment. They actually might help the real estate developers to establish a trust to securitize the real estate project they own; however, for the reasons analyzed below, most of them decided to get financing only through using the “proceeds accruing from” their real estate project. These trusts are given a fancy name “XXX资产收益财产权信托”, and literally translated as “Trusts on the Right to Proceeds to be Accrued from XXX Project Assets.” …
Substituted Compliance And Systemic Risk: How To Make A Global Market In Derivatives Regulation,
2014
Fordham University School of Law
Substituted Compliance And Systemic Risk: How To Make A Global Market In Derivatives Regulation, Sean J. Griffith
Faculty Scholarship
The conventional wisdom is that the global financial crisis of 2007-2008 revealed faults in the ability of international financial regulation to contain the problem of systemic risk. Further conventional wisdom suggests that the failure to regulate comple
The Gathering Storm: Restructuring Sovereign Contingent Liabilities,
2014
Duke Law School
The Gathering Storm: Restructuring Sovereign Contingent Liabilities, Lee C. Buchheit, Mitu Gulati
Faculty Scholarship
The contingent liabilities of a sovereign, such as guarantees of the debts of third parties, can normally be kept off the balance sheet of the sovereign guarantor. That is their charm. As the debt to GDP ratios of many developed countries approach red-zone levels, contingent liabilities are increasingly being favored over direct, on-the-balance-sheet, borrowings.
But what happens if a country carrying large contingent liabilities needs to restructure its debt? The borrower dare not leave its contingent claims out of the restructuring. To do so would risk undermining the financial predicates of the sovereign’s economic recovery program should the beneficiaries of …
Götterdämmerung,
2014
Duke Law School
Götterdämmerung, Lawrence G. Baxter
Faculty Scholarship
In his panel remarks on the future direction of financial regulation after the 2012 elections, Professor Lawrence Baxter argues that the age of large banks and “too big to fail” is destined to come to an end, but not through the traditional avenue of governmental oversight. Baxter starts by detailing the warning signs that illuminate the unsustainable nature of the current financial model and moves to a discussion on the deficiencies of modern banking regulations. Some hope for an end to giant banking behemoths, Baxter finally posits, lies in stricter market discipline and a realization that smaller, less-complex banks provide …
The Bankruptcy-Law Safe Harbor For Derivatives: A Path-Dependence Analysis,
2014
Duke Law School
The Bankruptcy-Law Safe Harbor For Derivatives: A Path-Dependence Analysis, Steven L. Schwarcz, Ori Sharon
Faculty Scholarship
U.S. bankruptcy law grants special rights and immunities to creditors in derivatives transactions, including virtually unlimited enforcement rights. This article argues that these rights and immunities result from a form of path dependence, a sequence of industry-lobbied legislative steps, each incremental and in turn serving as apparent justification for the next step, without a rigorous and systematic vetting of the consequences. Because the resulting “safe harbor” has not been fully vetted, its significance and utility should not be taken for granted; and thus regulators, legislators, and other policymakers—whether in the United States or abroad—should not automatically assume, based on its …
Santa Anna And His Black Eagle: The Origins Of Pari Passu?,
2014
Duke Law School
Santa Anna And His Black Eagle: The Origins Of Pari Passu?, Benjamin Chabot, Mitu Gulati
Faculty Scholarship
One of the most debated issues in international finance is the meaning of the pari passu clause in sovereign bonds. The clause is ubiquitous; it is in almost every single foreign-law sovereign bond out there. Yet, almost no one seems to agree on its meaning. One way to cut the Gordian knot is to track down the origins of the clause. Modern lawyers may have simply copied the clause from the documents of their predecessors without understanding its meaning. But surely the people who first drafted the clause knew what it meant. Four enterprising students at Duke Law School may …
Regulating Systemic Risk In Insurance,
2014
Duke Law School
Regulating Systemic Risk In Insurance, Daniel Schwarcz, Steven L. Schwarcz
Faculty Scholarship
As exemplified by the dramatic failure of AIG, insurance companies and their affiliates played a central role in the 2008 global financial crisis. It is therefore not surprising that the Dodd-Frank Act—the United States’ primary legislative re-sponse to the crisis—contained an entire title dedicated to insurance regulation, which has traditionally been the responsibility of individual states. The most important insurance-focused reforms in Dodd-Frank empower the Federal Reserve Bank to impose an additional layer of regulatory scrutiny on top of state insurance regulation for a small number of “systemically important” nonbank financial companies, such as AIG. This Article argues, however, that …
Do The Securities Laws Matter? The Rise Of The Leveraged Loan Market,
2014
Duke Law School
Do The Securities Laws Matter? The Rise Of The Leveraged Loan Market, Elisabeth De Fontenay
Faculty Scholarship
One of the enduring principles of federal securities regulation is the mantra that bonds are securities, while commercial loans are not. Yet the corporate bond and loan markets in the U.S. are rapidly converging, putting significant pressure on the disparity in their regulatory treatment. As securities, corporate bonds are subject to onerous public disclosure obligations and liability regimes, which corporate loans avoid entirely. This longstanding regulatory distinction between loans and bonds is based on the traditional conception of a commercial loan as a long-term relationship between the borrowing company and a single bank, in contrast to bonds, which may be …
From Pigs To Hogs,
2014
Duke Law School
From Pigs To Hogs, Stephen J. Choi, Mitu Gulati
Faculty Scholarship
The question of whether, and to what extent, markets price contract terms in government bond issues has been one of considerable debate in the literature. We use a natural experiment thrown up by the Euro area sovereign debt crisis of 2010-2013 to test whether a particular set of contract terms – ones that gave an advantage to sovereign guaranteed bonds over garden variety sovereign bonds – was priced. These contract terms turned out to be important for the holders of guaranteed bonds during the Greek debt restructuring of 2012, where they helped the holders of guaranteed bonds escape the haircut …
Extraterritorial Impacts Of Recent Financial Regulation Reforms: A Complex World Of Global Finance,
2014
Duke Law School
Extraterritorial Impacts Of Recent Financial Regulation Reforms: A Complex World Of Global Finance, Lawrence G. Baxter
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
“Robbing Peter To Pay Paul”: Economic And Cultural Explanations For How Lower-Income Families Manage Debt,
2014
Duke Law School
“Robbing Peter To Pay Paul”: Economic And Cultural Explanations For How Lower-Income Families Manage Debt, Laura M. Tach, Sara Sternberg Greene
Faculty Scholarship
This article builds upon classic economic perspectives of financial behavior by applying the narrative identity perspective of cultural sociology to explain how lower-income families respond to indebtedness. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with 194 lower-income household heads, we show that debt management strategies are influenced by a desire to promote a financially responsible, self-sufficient social identity. Families are reluctant to ask for assistance when faced with economic hardship because it undermines this identity. Because the need to pay on debts is less acute than the need to pay for regular monthly expenses like rent or groceries, debts receive a lower …
Comments On The September 29, 2014 Fsb Consultative Document, ‘Cross-Border Recognition Of Resolution Action’,
2014
Duke Law School
Comments On The September 29, 2014 Fsb Consultative Document, ‘Cross-Border Recognition Of Resolution Action’, Steven L. Schwarcz, Mark Jewett, Bruce Leonard, Catherine Walsh, David Kempthorne
Faculty Scholarship
This CIGI Paper No. 51 was released on December 3, 2014 by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) as a response to the Financial Stability Board’s (FSB) Consultative Document, “Cross-Border Recognition of Resolution Action.” Principally authored by CIGI Senior Fellow Steven L. Schwarcz (who works with the think tank’s International Law Research Program), the Paper comments on the policy measures proposed by the FSB, an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system, to address the cross-border legal uncertainties of troubled systemically important financial firms. In that context, the Paper explains why a statutory approach …
The Functional Regulation Of Finance,
2014
Duke Law School
The Functional Regulation Of Finance, Steven L. Schwarcz
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
The Governance Structure Of Shadow Banking,
2014
Duke Law School
The Governance Structure Of Shadow Banking, Steven L. Schwarcz
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Curbing The Exploitation Of Passive Creditors In Chapter 11 Reorganization By Leveraging The Oversight Role Of The United States Trustee,
2014
American University Washington College of Law
Curbing The Exploitation Of Passive Creditors In Chapter 11 Reorganization By Leveraging The Oversight Role Of The United States Trustee, Addison Pierce
American University Business Law Review
No abstract provided.
An Economic Investigation Of Rent-To-Own Agreements,
2014
Chicago-Kent College of Law
An Economic Investigation Of Rent-To-Own Agreements, Michael H. Anderson
Chicago-Kent Law Review
Rent-to-own (RTO) allows immediate access to goods without a credit check and provides an opportunity for eventual acquisition. Yet goods can be returned at any point without penalty or other adverse financial consequence. RTO is attractive to financially distressed consumers due to its ready availability as well as the options embedded in the contract. These options include the ability to cancel, early purchase, reinstate following a consumer return, and, possibly, choose the frequency of payments. In this article, a body of research on RTO is brought together and summarized. The bulk of this work is empirical, applying statistical techniques to …
Speculative Tech: The Bitcoin Legal Quagmire & The Need For Legal Innovation,
2014
University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
Speculative Tech: The Bitcoin Legal Quagmire & The Need For Legal Innovation, Paul H. Farmer Jr.
Journal of Business & Technology Law
No abstract provided.
