Securities Law Commons^™

Enforcement Of Corporate And Securities Laws In India: The Arrival Of The Class Action?, Vikramaditya S. Khanna

Book Chapters

Chapter from Enforcement of Corporate and Securities Law: China and the World. Howson, N.C. and Huang, R.H., eds.

Corporate governance in Asia has garnered a great deal of recent scholarly attention.1 One topic that permeates discussions across countries is the enforcement of corporate and securities laws – with some countries relying primarily on public enforcement (i.e. enforcement by government) while others rely on some combination of public and private enforcement (i.e. enforcement by private shareholders). Further, understanding how enforcement is operationalised and its concomitant strengths and weaknesses enables us to better appreciate the actual corporate governance situation in many …

Distributed Governance, Carla L. Reyes, Nizan Geslevich Packin, Ben Edwards

William & Mary Law Review Online

Distributed ledger technology disrupts traditional business organizations by introducing new business entities without the directors and officers of traditional corporate entities. Although these emerging entities offer intriguing possibilities, distributed entities may suffer significant collective action problems and expose investors to catastrophic regulatory and governance risks. Our Article examines key considerations for stakeholders and argues that distributed entities must be carefully structured to function effectively. This Article breaks new ground by critically examining distributed entities. We argue that a distributed model is most appropriate when distributed ledger technology solves a unique corporate governance problem. We caution against ignoring the lessons painstakingly …

When Is The ‘Force’ With A Securities Claim That Is ‘Brought To Enforce’ A Federal Securities Law?, Michelle Wellnitz

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Conclusion - Between "Law In Books" And "Law In Action", Nicholas C. Howson, H. Huang

Book Chapters

Any attempt to comprehensively analyse the enforcement of corporate law and securities regulation is difficult, not only because there are so many distinct national systems in play, but also because, we need to examine both formal enforcement mechanisms and the way in which such mechanisms are applied in practice. If nothing else, the expert analyses presented in the foregoing chapters of this book confirm that with respect to enforcement issues a rather large gap does exist between what Roscoe Pound memorably called 'law in books' and 'law in action'.

Tales From A Form Book: Stock Stories And Transactional Documents, Susan M. Chesler, Karen J. Sneddon

Montana Law Review

Tales from a Form Book: Stock Stories and Transactional Documents

Private Enforcement Of Company Law And Securities Regulation In Korea, Hwa-Jin Kim

Book Chapters

This chapter offers a brief overview of the private enforcement of corporate law and securities regulation in Korea, with particular reference to the current legislative efforts in the Korean National Assembly and recent court cases. This chapter also talks about Korea’s ill-fated and misguided adoption of the fraud-on-the-market theory in securities fraud litigation.

Stock Market Futurism, Merritt Fox, Gabriel Rauterberg

Articles

The U.S. stock market is undergoing extraordinary upheaval. The approval of the application of the Investors Exchange (IEX) to become the nation's newest stock exchange, including its famous "speed bump," was one of the SEC's most controversial decisions in decades. Other exchanges have proposed a raft of new innovations in its wake. This evolving equity market is a critical piece of national infrastructure, but the regulatory scheme for its institutions is increasingly frayed. In particular, current regulation draws sharp distinctions among different kinds of markets for trading stocks, treating stock exchanges as self-regulatory organizations immune from private civil litigation, while …

The Perfect Storm Is Brewing Once Again: What Scaling Back Dodd-Frank Will Mean For The Credit Default Swap, Daniel Isaacson

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

The current presidential administration has expressed a concerted desire to “scale back” and even “get rid of” the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd–Frank). Focusing specifically on Dodd–Frank’s regulation of the credit default swap (CDS), this Article explores two timely queries. First, whether Dodd–Frank’s regulatory response to these financial instruments is a justifiable one, and second, what effect a repeal may have. This Article will show that the “perfect storm” CDS—which contributed so significantly to the 2007–2010 financial crisis—flourished in a regulatory environment that contained two key weaknesses: (1) few restrictions on excessive speculation; and (2) the …

Typology Of Public-Private Equity, Sung Eun (Summer) Kim

Florida State University Law Review

Private equity, which pools funds for investment in private businesses, is one of the largest and fastest growing investment opportunities in the markets today. Private equity traditionally sought investments exclusively from sophisticated investors such as high net worth individuals and institutional investors. More recently, however, a growing number of private equity businesses have gone public and opened their doors to public investors, who are drawn to these investments because of the possibility of high returns and the opportunity to diversify their investment portfolios. In this Article, I review the universe of public-private equity (or PPE) businesses that are traded on …

A Textual Analysis Of Whistleblower Protections Under The Dodd-Frank Act, Brent T. Murphy

Notre Dame Law Review

This Note endorses the reasoning of the Fifth Circuit in Asadi v. G.E. Energy (USA), L.L.C., and argues that the plain language of Dodd-Frank limits its whistleblower protections to individuals who provide information to the SEC. This Note argues that the reasoning of the Second Circuit in Berman v. Neo@Ogilvy LLC relying on the Supreme Court’s decision in King v. Burwell is inapposite, and that the Second Circuit introduced ambiguity where no ambiguity previously existed and improperly extended Chevron deference to the SEC.

Rest In Peace, Rule 505, Wendy Gerwick Couture

Articles

After 37 years in existence,1 the Rule 505 exemption from registration has been repealed, effective May 22, 2017. This essay reviews the evolution of Rule 505 over its lifetime; examines Rule 505’s role within Regulation D and analyzes why that role eventually became obsolete; and argues that Rule 505 leaves behind a legacy that should continue to inform policy discussions about exemptions from registration.

Evaluating Stock-Trading Practices And Their Regulation, Merritt B. Fox, Kevin S. Haeberle

Faculty Publications

High-frequency trading, dark pools, and the practices associated with them have come under tremendous scrutiny lately, giving rise to much hot rhetoric. Missing from the discussion, however, is a principled, comprehensive standard for evaluating such practices and the law that governs them. This Article fills that gap by providing a general framework for making serious normative judgments about stock-trading behavior and its regulation. In particular, we argue that such practices and laws should be evaluated with an eye to the secondary trading market's impact on four main aspects of our economy: the use of existing productive capacity, the allocation of …

Discrimination Platforms, Kevin S. Haeberle

Faculty Publications

Off-exchange trading today has become defined by its opacity. Indeed, the framing of this symposium on What Happens in the Dark: An Exploration of Dark Pools and High Frequency Trading and its goal of "exam[ing] a portion of the modern market that remains largely outside of the public eye"l is much in line with contemporary thinking in policymaking, academic, and industry circles alike. Yet, off-exchange trading through "dark" pools and the like is far more transparent than thought, and exchange trading the opposite. In fact, much trading through off-exchange platforms is even more transparent than that facilitated by exchanges.

Despite …

Comment On Us Trade And Investment Agreements Submitted To Ustr, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Comments to USTR Re: Review of US Trade and Investment Agreements (July 17, 2017): CCSI, in response to the United States Trade Representative’s request for public comment to inform its performance review of US trade and investment agreements, submitted Comments that focused on the impact that investment protection provisions, enforceable through investor-state dispute settlement, have on rights-compliant, inclusive sustainable development within the United States and abroad.

To Be A "Whistleblower," Or Not To Be A "Whistleblower? " That Is The Question-Whether 'Tis Nobler In The Mind Of The Courts To Suffer For Reporting Wrongdoing To The Sec Or Employers Internally: Examining The Recent Circuit Split Regarding The Definition Of A Whistleblower Under Dodd-Frank, Luke I. Landers

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

Under the current state of the law, the circuit courts are split over whether an employee must report corporate wrongdoing directly to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), or report wrongdoing to a company’s management in order to receive whistleblower protection under Dodd–Frank. The resolution of this circuit split not only will have implications for American employees caught in situations similar to the fiction above, but also will provide a prime opportunity for the Supreme Court to clarify how courts are to understand the interpretive and deferential relationship between the language of legislative statutes and their corresponding bureaucratic regulations. In …

Regulating Moral Hazard: The True Risk Of Dodd-Frank's Risk Retention Requirement, Ethan T. Mobley

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

Dodd–Frank was implemented in response to the Great Recession as a means to curb abuses on Wall Street. The Act mandated broad reform of the financial system, and in particular, required regulators to promulgate rules controlling the complex structure of Asset-Backed Security (ABS). Dodd–Frank required securitizers to retain a portion of the credit risk associated with ABS. The goal was to curb moral hazard—the market failure commonly blamed for the Financial Crisis. However, there is reason to believe Dodd–Frank may “not adequately address” the moral hazard problem. In Part I, this Article will set forth the nuts and bolts of …

The Legal Aspects Of Portfolio Margining: A Move Toward The Lsoc Model, Christian Chamorro-Courtland

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

This Article focuses on the legal aspects of “portfolio margining” in the United States and their potential for reducing costs and facilitating the management of collateral for the participants involved. First, this Article outlines the level of protection that customer “margin” deposits receive in clearing systems using a Central Counterparty (CCP). Second, it explains the process of portfolio margining from a legal perspective and discusses the benefits of adopting these arrangements. Thirdly, it argues that adopting the “Legal Segregation and Operationally Commingled Model” (LSOC Model) in the futures industry can facilitate the implementation of portfolio margining. Finally, the conclusion explains …

Clarifying The Original Clawback: Interpreting Sarbanes-Oxley Section 304 Through The Lens Of Dodd-Frank Section 954, J. Royce Fichtner, Patrick Heaston, Lou Ann Simpson

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

In the early 2000s, major accounting scandals involving reporting violations and audit failures sent the United States financial markets into turmoil. Congress and President George W. Bush reacted to the controversy by passing the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act, better known as the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX), in July of 2002. Section 304 created an explicit procedure, whereby the SEC could disgorge or clawback a CEO or CFO’s incentive-based compensation or stock gains when such profits were based on inflated financial statements later required to be restated to reflect the company’s true financial position. When the stock market …

Reconceptualizing The Whistleblower's Dilemma, Miriam Baer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

How Oil And Gas Companies Can Help Meet The Global Goals On Energy And Climate Change, Lisa E. Sachs, Nicolas Maennling, Perrine Toledano

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement lay out a global consensus on the need to curb human-induced climate change and to achieve sustainable development. These concepts are linked. The urgency of addressing climate change is critical for global efforts to reduce poverty and advance sustainable development, but also climate-change mitigation must be pursued in a manner consistent with ending poverty, promoting economic development, respecting human rights, and ensuring social inclusion. CCSI and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) have published a briefing note summarizing the ways in which international oil and gas companies can help expand …