Merrick Dodd And The Great Depression: A Few Historical Corrections,
2019
Seattle University School of Law
Merrick Dodd And The Great Depression: A Few Historical Corrections, Charles R. T. O'Kelley
Seattle University Law Review
Merrick Dodd is remembered primarily for his role as coprotagonist, with Adolf Berle, in the famous Berle–Dodd debate. Dodd’s contribution to that debate—For Whom are Corporate Managers Trustees?—has generally been interpreted as the inspiration for modern stakeholder theory. Berle’s contribution has generally been viewed as the foundation on which shareholder primacy rests. Both of these views have been clarified by the nuanced work of Bratton and Wachter. Oddly, while scholars have devoted a great deal of attention to Berle’s actual life story, there is almost no scholarship that sheds light on Merrick Dodd, the historical person.
Berle And Means’S The Modern Corporation And Private Property: The Military Roots Of A Stakeholder Model Of Corporate Governance,
2019
Seattle University School of Law
Berle And Means’S The Modern Corporation And Private Property: The Military Roots Of A Stakeholder Model Of Corporate Governance, Andrew Smith, Kevin D. Tennent, Jason Russell
Seattle University Law Review
The Modern Corporation and Private Property by Adolf Berle and Gardiner Means (1932) remains one of the most cited works in management studies. Our paper shows that Berle and Means espoused a stakeholder theory of corporate governance that challenged the then-hegemonic idea that the sole purpose of a corporation is to create value for the shareholders. We argue that Berle and Means’s support for stakeholder theory can be associated with their earlier service in the U.S. military, an organization which then inculcated an ethos of public service in its members. Our paper, which is based on archival research in the …
Berle And Corporation Finance: Everything Old Is New Again,
2019
Seattle University School of Law
Berle And Corporation Finance: Everything Old Is New Again, Frank Partnoy
Seattle University Law Review
In this essay, I want to illustrate how Adolf A. Berle Jr.’s Studies in the Law of Corporation Finance1 was prescient about the kinds of financial innovation that are central to today’s markets. For scholars who are not familiar with this publication, Corporation Finance is a compilation of edited versions of several of Berle’s articles, along with some new material, most of which is focused on 1920s corporate practice. My primary goal here is simply to shine a light on this work and to memorialize for scholars the key passages that echo many of today’s challenges. The punch line of …
Adolf Berle During The New Deal: The Brain Truster As An Intellectual Jobber,
2019
Seattle University School of Law
Adolf Berle During The New Deal: The Brain Truster As An Intellectual Jobber, Robert B. Thompson
Seattle University Law Review
Adolf Berle’s ideas have attained a remarkable longevity in corporate law with an influence exceeding that of any other twentieth century law professor. Participants in the now ten Berle symposia often have framed the discussion of his career as an intellectual history, usually built around the powerful transformative effect of The Modern Corporation and Private Property (MCPP). Yet this approach is insufficient to explain large parts of Berle’s professional career, including what Berle did during the twelve years of the Roosevelt Administration that immediately followed MCPP. This Article offers an alternative focus that better accounts for the career of an …
The ‘Berle And Means Corporation’ In Historical Perspective,
2019
Seattle University School of Law
The ‘Berle And Means Corporation’ In Historical Perspective, Eric Hilt
Seattle University Law Review
This Article presents new evidence on the evolution of the business corporation in America and on the emergence of what is commonly termed the “Berle and Means corporation.” Drawing on a wide range of sources, I investigate three major historical claims of The Modern Corporation: that large corporations had displaced small ones by the early twentieth century; that the quasi-public corporations of the 1930s were much larger than the public corporations of the nineteenth century; and that ownership was separated from control to a much greater extent in the 1930s compared to the nineteenth century. I address each of these …
Looking Forward In A Failing World: Adolf A. Berle, Jr., The United States, And Global Order In The Interwar Years,
2019
Seattle University School of Law
Looking Forward In A Failing World: Adolf A. Berle, Jr., The United States, And Global Order In The Interwar Years, Jessica Wang
Seattle University Law Review
This essay explores Berle’s understanding of American power and its relationship to global order in the era between the First and Second World Wars. I first survey the history of progressive internationalism in the 1920s in order to situate Berle’s approach to U.S. foreign relations and global affairs, before proceeding to a close examination of Berle’s immediate response to the aftermath of World War I, and then his foreign policy activities as part of the Roosevelt administration in the late 1930s and early 1940s. My analysis focuses in particular on his public efforts to promote a transformative vision of global …
On The Origins Of The Modern Corporation And Private Property,
2019
Seattle University School of Law
On The Origins Of The Modern Corporation And Private Property, Bernard C. Beaudreau
Seattle University Law Review
The Modern Corporation and Private Property (MCPP) by Adolf A. Berle Jr. and Gardiner Means, published in 1932, is undisputedly the most influential work ever written in the field of corporate governance. In a nutshell, Berle and Means argued that corporate control had been usurped by a new class of managers, the result of which included (1) shareholder loss of control (a basic property right), (2) questionable corporate objectives and behavior, and (3) the potential breakdown of the market mechanism. In this paper, I examine the origins of MCPP, paying particular attention to the authors’ underlying motives. I argue that …
The Modern Corporation And Private Property Revisited: Gardiner Means And The Administered Price,
2019
Seattle University School of Law
The Modern Corporation And Private Property Revisited: Gardiner Means And The Administered Price, William W. Bratton
Seattle University Law Review
This essay casts additional light on The Modern Corporation’s corporatist precincts, shifting attention to the book’s junior coauthor, Gardiner C. Means. Means is accurately remembered as the generator of Book I’s statistical showings—the description of deepening corporate concentration and widening separation of ownership and control. He is otherwise more notable for his absence than his presence in today’s discussions of The Modern Corporation. This essay fills this gap, describing the junior coauthor’s central concern—a theory of administered prices set out in a Ph.D. dissertation Means submitted to the Harvard economics department after the book’s publication.
Berle X: Berle And His World: An Homage To William W. Bratton,
2019
Seattle University School of Law
Berle X: Berle And His World: An Homage To William W. Bratton, Charles R. T. O'Kelley
Seattle University Law Review
An introduction to the Berle X symposium, honoring William W. (Bill) Bratton.
Technological And Institutional Crossroads: The Life And Times Of Adolf A. Berle Jr.,
2019
Seattle University School of Law
Technological And Institutional Crossroads: The Life And Times Of Adolf A. Berle Jr., Bernard C. Beaudreau
Seattle University Law Review
In this paper, I examine the life and times of Adolf A. Berle Jr., perhaps the most influential scholar in the field of corporate governance. Specifically, I examine his contribution in light of the technological and institutional changes that occurred in the late nineteenth century—changes that were germane to his thinking and understanding of corporate governance. I argue that, despite his perspicacity, he failed to appreciate the changing role of corporate officers—that is, from that of fiduciary agent to that of visionary, founder, and essential element in corporate success. Put differently, in the early twentieth century, the key asset in …
Democracy In America At Work: The History Of Labor’S Vote In Corporate Governance,
2019
Seattle University School of Law
Democracy In America At Work: The History Of Labor’S Vote In Corporate Governance, Ewan Mcgaughey
Seattle University Law Review
Can there be democracy in America at work? The historical division between democracy in politics and hierarchy in the economy is under strain. Hierarchical interests in the economy are shifting their model of power into politics, and yet a commitment to revive the law is resurgent. Central examples are the proposed Accountable Capitalism Act, Reward Work Act, Workplace Democracy Acts, and Employees’ Pension Security Acts. They would create a right for employees to elect 40% of directors on $1 billion company boards, a right for employees to elect one-third of directors on other listed company boards and require one-half employee …
“All Lawyers Are Somewhat Suspect”: Adolf A. Berle And The Modern Legal Profession,
2019
Seattle University School of Law
“All Lawyers Are Somewhat Suspect”: Adolf A. Berle And The Modern Legal Profession, Harwell Wells
Seattle University Law Review
Adolf A. Berle was perhaps the preeminent scholar of the modern corporation. He was also an occasional scholar of the modern legal profession. This Article surveys his writings on the legal profession from the 1930s to the 1960s, from the sharp criticisms he leveled at lawyers, particularly corporate lawyers, during the Great Depression, to his sunnier account of the lawyer’s role in the postwar era. I argue that Berle’s views were shaped both by the reformist tradition he inherited from Louis Brandeis and his writings on the corporation, which left him convinced that the fate of the legal profession would …
Facebook's Alternative Facts,
2019
Washington and Lee University School of Law
Facebook's Alternative Facts, Sarah C. Haan
Scholarly Articles
In this short essay, I argue that Facebook’s adoption of the alternative-facts frame potentially contributes to the divisiveness that has made social media misinformation a powerful digital tool. Facebook’s choice to present information as “facts” and “alternative facts” endorses a binary system in which all information can be divided between moral or tribal categories—“bad” versus “good” speech, as Sandberg put it in her testimony to Congress. As we will see, Facebook’s related-articles strategy adopts this binary construction, offering a both-sides News Feed that encourages users to view information as cleaving along natural moral or political divisions.
Defining Authentic: The Relationship Between Native Art And Federal Indian Policy, 1879-1961,
2019
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Defining Authentic: The Relationship Between Native Art And Federal Indian Policy, 1879-1961, Aurora Kenworthy
Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)
Between 1879 and 1961, non-Native perceptions of what constituted authentic Native art shifted. These changing perceptions were influenced by, and then in turn influenced, federal policy and legislation. While non-Native individuals and groups worked to improve conditions for Native communities and to protect “authentic” Native art forms, Native reformers also attempted to enact change to help Native communities and Native artists exercised control over their own art and identity.
Rethinking Social Resistance Through The Consolidating Politics Of Humanitarian Populism In Mytilene, Greece,
2019
York University-Toronto
Rethinking Social Resistance Through The Consolidating Politics Of Humanitarian Populism In Mytilene, Greece, Othon Alexandrakis
Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies
During the spring of 2015, thousands of migrants began to arrive daily on the shores of Lesvos, Greece, from nearby Turkey. As the Greek government and the European Union (EU) monitored the unfolding situation, diverse ad hoc humanitarian projects flourished on the island. These projects enacted a field of action grounded in intersecting, concerning effects and values of care. This essay considers the challenges these projects posed to the local, national, and transnational humanitarian apparatus that eventually moved in and attempted to regulate these players. Drawing on recent work in anthropology on sense and critical agency, I discuss these challenges …
Law, Politics, And Populisim In The U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act,
2019
American Bar Foundation
Law, Politics, And Populisim In The U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act, Jothie Rajah
Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies
The U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act is legislation that simultaneously brings into being very particular notions of the American 'national' and, as its counterpart, a post-9/11 "global." Through a study of the Patriot Act, my paper unpacks the co-constitutions of national/global and a related series of binaries: domestic/foreign; patriot/terrorist; us/them; and innocence/evil. By exploring the structuring logics and language of these binaries in the Act, my paper scrutinizes the global role of U.S. legislative text in our world: a world in which "a global society has come into being but possesses as yet, no institutions proper to its name."1 In the context …
Bridging The Gap Between Daca And The Dream: The Bridge Act, What It Means, And Why It Matters,
2019
Penn State Dickinson Law
Bridging The Gap Between Daca And The Dream: The Bridge Act, What It Means, And Why It Matters, Ellen E. Findley
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)
No abstract provided.
Clarity In The Code Du Travail: The Plain Language Movement, French Legislative Drafting, And President Macron’S Collective Bargaining Reform,
2019
Penn State Dickinson Law
Clarity In The Code Du Travail: The Plain Language Movement, French Legislative Drafting, And President Macron’S Collective Bargaining Reform, Adam Boyd
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)
Although the French Code is known as concise and elegant, the French Labor Code, or the Code du Travail, is not.1 Recent reform to the Code du Travail provides a chance to study Plain Language use in France in 2017. This Comment briefly introduces what Plain Language is, its goal of making the law easier to read, and the international movement to implement Plain Language legal reforms. The Comment then introduces a summary of the French legal system relevant to discussion of the Code du Travail, including how legislation is passed and the structure of a French statute. Next, the …
“One Is The Loneliest Number”: A Comparison Of Solitary Confinement Practices In The United States And The United Kingdom,
2019
Penn State Dickinson Law
“One Is The Loneliest Number”: A Comparison Of Solitary Confinement Practices In The United States And The United Kingdom, Daniella Johner
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)
No abstract provided.
American Immigration: A Path Of Return To A Pre-Modern Ideal Of Open Immigration Policy,
2019
Penn State Dickinson Law
American Immigration: A Path Of Return To A Pre-Modern Ideal Of Open Immigration Policy, Zachary J. Carls
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)
No abstract provided.
