Stakeholder Governance On The Ground (And In The Sky), 2024 Seattle University School of Law
Stakeholder Governance On The Ground (And In The Sky), Stephen Johnson, Frank Partnoy
Seattle University Law Review
Professor Frank Partnoy: This is a marvelous gathering, and it is all due to Chuck O’Kelley and the special gentleness, openness, and creativity that he brings to this symposium. For more than a decade, he has been open to new and creative ways to discuss important issues surrounding business law and Adolf Berle’s legacy. We also are grateful to Dorothy Lund for co-organizing this gathering.
In introducing Stephen Johnson, I am reminded of a previous Berle, where Chuck allowed me some time to present the initial thoughts that led to my book, WAIT: The Art and Science of Delay. Part …
The Structure Of Corporate Law Revolutions, 2024 Seattle University School of Law
The Structure Of Corporate Law Revolutions, William Savitt
Seattle University Law Review
Since, call it 1970, corporate law has operated under a dominant conception of governance that identifies profit-maximization for stockholder benefit as the purpose of the corporation. Milton Friedman’s essay The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits, published in September of that year, provides a handy, if admittedly imprecise, marker for the coronation of the shareholder-primacy paradigm. In the decades that followed, corporate law scholars pursued an ever-narrowing research agenda with the purpose and effect of confirming the shareholder-primacy paradigm. Corporate jurisprudence followed a similar path, slowly at first and later accelerating, to discover in the precedents and …
Stakeholder Capitalism’S Greatest Challenge: Reshaping A Public Consensus To Govern A Global Economy, 2024 Seattle University School of Law
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 …
Delegated Corporate Voting And The Deliberative Franchise, 2024 Seattle University School of Law
Delegated Corporate Voting And The Deliberative Franchise, Sarah C. Haan
Seattle University Law Review
Starting in the 1930s with the earliest version of the proxy rules, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has gradually increased the proportion of “instructed” votes on the shareholder’s proxy card until, for the first time in 2022, it required a fully instructed proxy card. This evolution effectively shifted the exercise of the shareholder’s vote from the shareholders’ meeting to the vote delegation that occurs when the share-holder fills out the proxy card. The point in the electoral process when the binding voting choice is communicated is now the execution of the proxy card (assuming the shareholder completes the card …
Robo-Voting: Does Delegated Proxy Voting Pose A Challenge For Shareholder Democracy?, 2024 Seattle University School of Law
Robo-Voting: Does Delegated Proxy Voting Pose A Challenge For Shareholder Democracy?, John Matsusaka, Chong Shu
Seattle University Law Review
Robo-voting is the practice by an investment fund of mechanically voting in corporate elections according to the advice of its proxy advisor— in effect fully delegating its voting decision to its advisor. We examined over 65 million votes cast during the period 2008–2021 by 14,582 mutual funds to describe and quantify the prevalence of robo-voting. Overall, 33% of mutual funds robo-voted in 2021: 22% with ISS, 4% with Glass Lewis, and six percent with the recommendations of the issuer’s management. The fraction of funds that robo-voted increased until around 2013 and then stabilized at the current level. Despite the sizable …
Defining Religion And Accommodating Religious Exercise, 2024 Brigham Young University Law School
Defining Religion And Accommodating Religious Exercise, Justin Collings, Anna Bryner
Indiana Law Journal
It is a volatile time in the jurisprudence of the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses. In recent terms, the U.S. Supreme Court has revisited many key Church-State and free exercise questions, and the Justices seem poised to revisit several more. Each of these fundamental questions presupposes an antecedent question: what, for constitutional purposes, is religion itself? The Court has never answered this question consistently or systematically. But, at least in the case of constitutionally mandated religious exemptions, a clear pattern emerges over time: the broader the Court’s definition of religion, the weaker its regime of religious exemptions. The reverse has also …
Risky Speech Systems: Tort Liability For Ai-Generated Illegal Speech, 2024 University of Colorado Law School
Risky Speech Systems: Tort Liability For Ai-Generated Illegal Speech, Margot E. Kaminski
Publications
No abstract provided.
Machine Manipulation: Why An Ai Editor Does Not Serve First Amendment Values, 2024 University of Colorado Law School
Machine Manipulation: Why An Ai Editor Does Not Serve First Amendment Values, Alec Peters
University of Colorado Law Review
The past few years have seen increasing calls for regulation of large social media platforms, and several states have recently enacted laws regulating their content moderation, promotion, and recommendation practices. But if those platforms are exercising editorial discretion when carrying out these tasks, many of the regulations will run into constitutional concerns: the First Amendment protects the “exercise of editorial control and judgment” by publishers over their choice of content and how it is presented. However, the editorial operation of social media platforms differs significantly from traditional media, most importantly in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for editorial decision-making. …
Market Failure And Censorship In The Marketplace Of Ideas, 2024 University of Oklahoma College of Law
Market Failure And Censorship In The Marketplace Of Ideas, John P. Anderson, Jeremy Kidd
Oklahoma Law Review
No abstract provided.
Social Media, The Modern Public Forum: The State Action Doctrine And Resurrection Of Marsh, 2024 Mitchell Hamline School of Law
Social Media, The Modern Public Forum: The State Action Doctrine And Resurrection Of Marsh, Erika L. Andersen
Mitchell Hamline Law Review
No abstract provided.
Virtual Justice: Criminalizing Avatar Sexual Assault In Metaverse Spaces, 2024 Mitchell Hamline School of Law
Virtual Justice: Criminalizing Avatar Sexual Assault In Metaverse Spaces, Olivia Bellini
Mitchell Hamline Law Review
No abstract provided.
Capitalism Stakeholderism, 2024 Seattle University School of Law
Capitalism Stakeholderism, Christina Parajon Skinner
Seattle University Law Review
Today’s corporate governance debates are replete with discussion of how best to operationalize so-called stakeholder capitalism—that is, a version of capitalism that considers the interests of employees, communities, suppliers, and the environment alongside (if not before) a company’s shareholders. So much focus has been dedicated to the question of capitalism’s reform that few have questioned a key underlying premise of stakeholder capitalism: that is, that competitive capitalism does not serve these various constituencies and groups. This Essay presents a different view and argues that capitalism is, in fact, the ultimate form of stakeholderism. As such, the Essay urges that the …
The Federal Question Jurisdiction Under Article Iii: “First In The Minds Of The Framers,” But Today, Perhaps, Falling Short Of The Framers’ Expectations, 2024 University of Pittsburgh School of Law
The Federal Question Jurisdiction Under Article Iii: “First In The Minds Of The Framers,” But Today, Perhaps, Falling Short Of The Framers’ Expectations, Arthur D. Hellman
Articles
As Chief Justice Marshall explained, “the primary motive” for creating a “judicial department” for the new national government was “the desire of having a [national] tribunal for the decision of all national questions.” Thus, although Article III of the Constitution lists nine kinds of “Cases” and “Controversies” to which the “judicial Power” of the United States “shall extend,” “the objects which stood first in the minds of the framers” were the cases “arising under” the Constitution, laws, and treaties of the United States. Today we refer to this as the federal question jurisdiction.
Of all federal question cases, the Framers …
Courting Censorship, 2024 Columbia Law School
Courting Censorship, Philip A. Hamburger
Faculty Scholarship
Has Supreme Court doctrine invited censorship? Not deliberately, of course. Still, it must be asked whether current doctrine has courted censorship — in the same way one might speak of it courting disaster.
The Court has repeatedly declared its devotion to the freedom of speech, so the suggestion that its doctrines have failed to block censorship may seem surprising. The Court’s precedents, however, have left room for government suppression, even to the point of seeming to legitimize it.
This Article is especially critical of the state action doctrine best known from Blum v. Yaretsky. That doctrine mistakenly elevates coercion …
The Public’S Companies, 2023 Emory University
The Public’S Companies, Andrew K. Jennings
Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law
This Essay uses a series of survey studies to consider how public understandings of public and private companies map into urgent debates over the role of the corporation in American society. Does a social-media company, for example, owe it to its users to follow the free-speech principles embodied in the First Amendment? May corporate managers pursue environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) policies that could reduce short-term or long-term profits? How should companies respond to political pushback against their approaches to free expression or ESG?
The studies’ results are consistent with understandings that both public and private companies have greater public …
Trademark Infringement: The Likelihood Of Confusion Of Nfts In The Us And Eu, 2023 Brooklyn Law School
Trademark Infringement: The Likelihood Of Confusion Of Nfts In The Us And Eu, Sara Sachs
Brooklyn Journal of International Law
The immutability of non-fungible tokens has made it an invaluable tool for asset ownership and authentication across a variety of industries. With the proliferation of NFTs comes the need to protect trademarks and prevent consumer confusion in the digital age. This Note explores the existing legal framework for trademark law in the United States and European Union. This Note argues for a new trademark standard that reflects the interconnected nature of a global digital society.
Bill Of Rights Nondelegation, 2023 Brigham Young University Law School
Bill Of Rights Nondelegation, Eli Nachmany
BYU Law Review
Speculation about the “revival” of the nondelegation doctrine has reached a fever pitch. Although the Supreme Court apparently has not applied the nondelegation doctrine to declare a federal statute unconstitutional since 1935, the doctrine may be making a comeback. The common understanding is that the nondelegation doctrine prohibits Congress from “delegating” legislative power to the executive branch. While the nondelegation doctrine may appear to be about limiting Congress, its ultimate target is delegation. But if the nondelegation doctrine is about policing delegation, then the Court has been regularly — and rigorously — applying the doctrine in a different context: In …
Section 230 As Civil Rights Statute, 2023 Elon University School of Law
Section 230 As Civil Rights Statute, Enrique Armijo
University of Cincinnati Law Review
Many of our most pressing discussions about justice, progress, and civil rights have moved online. Activists advocating for social change no longer need to be in the same physical space to connect with others who share their challenges and aspirations. But the convergence of mobility, connectivity, and technology is not the only reason why. Thanks to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act’s (“Section 230”) immunity for online platforms, websites, and their hosts, speakers can engage in speech about protest, equality, and dissent without fear of collateral censorship from governments, authorities, and others in power who hope to silence them. …
First Amendment Scrutiny: Realigning First Amendment Doctrine Around Government Interests, 2023 Brooklyn Law School
First Amendment Scrutiny: Realigning First Amendment Doctrine Around Government Interests, John Inazu
Brooklyn Law Review
This article proposes a simpler way to frame judicial analysis of First Amendment claims: a government restriction on First Amendment expression or action must advance a compelling interest through narrowly tailored means and must not excessively burden the expression or action relative to the interest advanced. The test thus has three prongs: (1) compelling interest; (2) narrow tailoring; and (3) proportionality. Part I explores how current First Amendment doctrine too often minimizes or ignores a meaningful assessment of the government’s purported interest in limiting First Amendment liberties. Part II shows how First Amendment inquiry is further confused by threshold inquiries …
Identity Crisis: First Amendment Implications Of State Identification Card And Driver’S License Branding For Registered Sex Offenders, 2023 Brooklyn Law School
Identity Crisis: First Amendment Implications Of State Identification Card And Driver’S License Branding For Registered Sex Offenders, Marina D. Barron
Brooklyn Law Review
The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act has been criticized since its inception as excessively punitive, a poor means of preventing sex crimes, and an invasion of basic privacy rights. There are currently eight states that require registered sex offenders to carry branded identification cards (IDs) that mark their registrant status. These markings range anywhere from a letter or symbol on the face of the card, to the words “SEXUAL OFFENDER” or “SEXUAL PREDATOR” in bright red or orange letters. Registrants are forced to share this private and harmful information to the unknowing and presumably uninterested public, including pharmacists, hotel …