Commercial Law Commons^™

Identifying Fundamental Breach Of Articles 25 And 49 Of The Cisg: The Good Faith Duty Of Collaborative Efforts To Cure Defects - Make The Parties Draw A Line In The Sand Of Substantiality, Yasutoshi Ishida

Michigan Journal of International Law

Article 49(1) of the CISG allows buyers of international goods to avoid their sales contracts “if the failure by the seller to perform . . . amounts to a fundamental breach.” A breach is “fundamental,” as defined by CISG article 25, when it causes the buyer such detriment “as substantially to deprive him of what he is entitled to expect under the contract.” This definition is followed by the so-called “foreseeability test,” an “unless” clause that excepts the situation where “the party in breach did not foresee[,] and a reasonable person of the same kind in the same circumstances would …

Lessons About Franchise Risk From Yum Brands And Schlotzsky’S, Robert W. Emerson, Lawrence J. Trautman

Lewis & Clark Law Review

This Article presents YUM! Brands, Inc. disclosure information and valuable insight into the risks of starting a business that shares intellectual property with another party. YUM is the parent of entities such as KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, with locations around the world. YUM is particularly useful for our analysis because of its mature operating concepts.

Sandwich shop franchisor and operator Schlotzsky’s, Inc. presents a different aspect of shareholder and franchisee risk. The facts leading up to Schlotzsky’s bankruptcy filing represent what can go wrong with undercapitalized franchise operations and illustrate that franchising is inherently risky for anyone.

This …

Shadow Credit And The Devolution Of Consumer Credit Regulation, Nathalie Martin, Lydia Pizzonia

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Shadow credit is trending. Shadow credit has all the essential attributes of regular credit except that it is unregulated. It operates in a world in which products and services that look, act, and feel like credit products are deemed to be something that is not actually credit. This legal sidestep is accomplished either by passing industry-friendly legislation or by tweaking the shadow credit product just enough to not be defined as credit, but “something else.” That “something else” is often called a “lease,” an “advance,” or in the case of After- pay, simply a “service.” At its essence, however, it …

Monetary Consequences Of Environmental Regulations: Costs Of Doing Business Or Non-Deductible Penalties Or Fines?, Daniel P. Fernandez, Alex R. Figares, H. Cecil

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Long Live The Golden Summer: Arbitration, Courts, & Colas, L. Yves Fortier

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Contract Interpretation And The Parol Evidence Rule: Toward Conceptual Clarification, Joshua M. Silverstein

Law Faculty Scholarship

Contract interpretation is one of the most important topics in commercial law. Unfortunately, the law of interpretation is extraordinarily convoluted. In essentially every American state, the jurisprudence is riddled with inconsistency and ambiguity. This causes multiple problems. Contracting parties are forced to expend additional resources when negotiating and drafting agreements. Disputes over contractual meaning are more likely to end up in litigation. And courts make a greater number of errors in the interpretive process. Together, these impacts result in significant unfairness and undermine economic efficiency. Efforts to remedy the doctrinal incoherence are thus warranted.

The goal of this Article is …

The Twentieth Century Cowboy: Law's Light Touch, Henry H. Perritt Jr.

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Resolving The Crowdfunding Conundrum: The Experience Of The United States And Spain, Rafael A. Porrata-Doria Jr.

American University Business Law Review

The phenomenon known as crowdfunding has become an attractive alternative for businesses looking for investors without having to go through more well-established routes or without necessarily having to lure and impress professional investors. However, this new form of raising capital creates a series of issues and problems unique to crowdfunding, which has led to a struggle amongst governments to effectively regulate this new entrepreneurial opportunity. The crowdfunding conundrum government regulators are facing causes them to have to reconcile two contradictory missions: facilitating the acquisition of capital by businesses and protecting investors (and the market) from fraud and manipulation. This Article …

Tuition As A Fraudulent Transfer, David G. Carlson

Articles

Bankruptcy trustees are suing universities because the insolvent parent of an adult student has written a tuition check while insolvent. The theory is that the university is the initial transferee of a fraudulent transfer that has provided benefit to the student but not to the parent debtor. This article claims that the university is never the initial transferee of tuition dollars. Rather, the student is. Where the university has no knowledge of parent insolvency, the university can count educating the student as a good faith transfer for value, thus immunizing the university from liability. The unpleasant side effect is that …

The Paradox Of Contracting In Markets, Robert E. Scott

Faculty Scholarship

Traditional economic analysis distinguishes economic organization along three dimensions: firm, contract, and market. This categorization is misleading in any number of respects, but none more so than the assumption that contract and market are separate modes of exchange. In fact, other than barter, which is almost unknown in contemporary commercial transactions, every market transaction is implemented by contract. Thus, in markets the two modes of exchange are inextricably combined. Moreover, the vast majority of contract activity occurs in some form of market, so it does not require much loss of generalization to say that not only are contracts in all …

Commercial Transportation, Madeline E. Mcneeley, Yvonne S. Godfrey, T. Peyton Bell, Stephen G. Lowry

Mercer Law Review

Commercial transportation involves all of the significant forms of passenger and freight transportation across the United States. This Article surveys significant judicial and legislative developments in Georgia commercial-transportation law during the period from June 1, 2017 through May 31, 2019.

Three of the areas discussed here—commercial motor vehicles, aviation, and rail—are subject to heavy federal regulation due to their large effects on interstate commerce. Accordingly, motor-carrier and railroad law primarily saw developments pertaining to state procedure and in the interactions between state and federal law, while state aviation law primarily focused on Georgia’s efforts both to regulate and facilitate the …

Corporations Hybrid: A Covid Case Study On Innovation In Business Law Pedagogy, Seth C. Oranburg, David D. Tamasy

Law Faculty Publications

This Article is about using "asynchronous" online technology synergistically with in-class experiences and "synchronous" livedistance education sessions. It focuses on creating instructional videos because great videos are essential for online learning.¹ This Article also discusses creating digital teaching assets for active learning such as formative assessments, learning journals, and discussion boards.

The authors of this paper are a law professor and his former student and teaching assistant. We worked together for two years to innovate and implement many technological enhancements in Corporations class. We created and deployed a "Hybrid" course in which students performed "asynchronous" technology-mediated learning activities before …

Consumers' Declining Power In The Fintech Auto Loan Market, Pamela Foohey

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Automobiles have become part of America’s infrastructure. For most people, having access to a car is crucial to their livelihoods and they will take on significant amounts of debt to purchase vehicles. Auto debt is unlike any other consumer debt, both in its structure, which allows creditors to easily seize collateral, and in its lack of regulation. The unique and lucrative nature of auto debt has not gone unnoticed by lenders or by companies leveraging fintech to offer people new ways to purchase cars and car loans. This Article assesses the evolving marketplace for auto sales, leasing, and loans to …

There Oughta Be A Law: What Corporate Social Responsibility Can Teach Us About Consumer Contract Formation, Colin P. Marks

Faculty Works

This Article examines the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law of Consumer Contracts, with particular focus on Section 2 and its adoption of the rolling contract theory and notice-based assent to standard terms. Tracing the doctrinal roots of this approach to ProCD v. Zeidenberg and its progeny, the Article situates contemporary consumer contract formation within broader debates over assent, efficiency, and fairness in both offline and online transactions. Rather than engaging solely in doctrinal critique, the Article draws on corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature to argue that market forces alone are insufficient to regulate how businesses present standard terms …

Inflated Private Offering: Regulating Corporate Insiders And Market Moving Disclosures On Social Media, Marisa Papenfuss

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note will explore Regulation FD’s development, from its enactment in 2000 to its status in the age of social media. It will ultimately propose a safe harbor provision that clearly delineates when issuers and corporate insiders are not subject to the regulation’s requirements. Part I provides an overview of Regulation FD’s provisions and enforcement as well as the SEC’s subsequent guidance, which attempts to elucidate the regulation’s application to new technologies. Part II analyzes the specific problems that arise when Regulation FD is applied to information distributed through social media and assesses scholars’ proposed solutions to these problems. Lastly, …

Reciprocity In China-Us Judgments Recognition, William S. Dodge, Wenliang Zhang

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The conventional wisdom is that China and the United States do not recognize each other's court judgments. But this is changing. A US court first recognized a Chinese judgment in 2009, and a Chinese court first reciprocated in 2017. This Article provides an overview of the enforcement of US judgments in China and Chinese judgments in the United States, noting the similarities and differences in the two countries' systems. In China, rules for the enforcement of foreign judgments are established at the national level and require reciprocity. In the United States, rules for the enforcement of foreign judgments are established …

Addressing The Auditor Independence Puzzle: Regulatory Models And Proposal For Reform, Martin Gelter, Aurelio Gurrea-Martinez

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Auditors play a major role in corporate governance and capital markets. Ex ante, auditors facilitate firms' access to finance by fostering trust among public investors. Ex post, auditors can prevent misbehavior and prevent financial fraud by corporate insiders. In order to fulfill these goals, however, in addition to having the adequate knowledge and expertise, auditors must perform their functions in an independent manner. Unfortunately, auditors are often subject to conflicts of interest, for example, resulting from the provision of nonaudit services but also because of the mere fact of being hired and paid by the audited company. Therefore, even if …

Party Autonomy And Default Rules Regarding The Choice Of Number Of Arbitrators, Ilias Bantekas

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

This article is divided in two main parts. The first focuses on the party autonomy paradigm in international commercial arbitration. This includes an examination of rules and practices allowing the parties to choose both an even and odd number of arbitrators. The second part looks at the variety of default options, including the appropriate number of arbitrators in multi-party proceedings. Two smaller sections follow these. The first examines, albeit briefly, the position with respect to truncated tribunals. The second analyzes the appropriate number of arbitrators in the event that the parties choose one or more legal persons as arbitrators, particularly …

Diversity Of Shareholder Stewardship In Asia: Faux Convergence, Gen Goto, Alan K. Koh, Dan W. Puchniak

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Since the UK adopted the world's first stewardship code in 2010, stewardship codes have proliferated across Asia. Given the UK Code's prominence, it is tempting to assume that every other stewardship code performs the same function as the UK Code. This assumption belies the truth: all these codes--regardless of whether they have in fact drawn inspiration from the UK Code--have taken different trajectories due to each adopting its jurisdiction's distinctive institutional and legal context.

Using empirical evidence and in-depth case studies of stewardship in Japan and Singapore, this Article reveals how any reception of United Kingdom-style stewardship concepts is only …

Management Succession In Korea: Tunneling, Semi-Tunneling, And The Reaction Of Corporate Law, Kyung-Hoon Chun

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Recently in Korea, certain issues of corporate law became the subjects of fierce political debates unlike many other jurisdictions where corporate law issues generally remain in the exclusive realm of professionals and academics. This Article begins with the question of why corporate law issues attracted so much political attention in Korea and whether such political attention actually helped improve the corporate law. In pursuing the answers to such questions, this Article identifies a recurring pattern: (i) existence of strict rules against seeking private benefits; (ii) various clever measures to circumvent such rules; (iii) failure of the courts to regulate such …