The Free Speech Rights of University Students
By Mary-Rose Papandrea. Full text here. As questions regarding the freedom of expression on college campuses grip the country, courts adjudicating First Amendment cases in the higher education setting are struggling to determine the appropriate legal framework. Some courts are relying on Supreme Court cases from the K–12 setting as well as the public employment context;…
Continue ReadingThe Luxembourg Effect: Patent Boxes and the Limits of International Cooperation
By Lilian V. Faulhaber. Full text here. This Article uses patent boxes, which reduce taxes on income from patents and other IP assets, to illustrate the fact that the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has a longer reach than has previously been recognized. This Article argues that, along with having effects within the…
Continue ReadingThe Geography of Equal Protection
By Christopher R. Leslie. Full text here. This Article examines the geographic dimension of equal protection analysis. Whether a law violates the Equal Protection Clause generally depends on what level of scrutiny a court applies in reviewing that law. Laws that employ suspect classifications are subjected to heightened scrutiny. Whether a classification is suspect depends in…
Continue ReadingWhat Legal Authority Does the Fed Need During a Financial Crisis?
By Eric A. Posner. Full text here. The financial crisis of 2007–08 revealed gaps in the laws that authorize federal agencies to provide emergency liquidity support. On numerous occasions the Fed, FDIC, and Treasury acted without legal authorization, exposing them to criticism from Congress and the U.S. government to legal liability. I propose reforms that would…
Continue ReadingCoverage Information in Insurance Law
By Daniel Schwarcz. Full text here. The central goal of insurance law is to clarify, produce, and disseminate information about the scope of insurers’ coverage obligations to policyholders. This Article examines how insurance law and regulation seek to achieve these objectives, and to what ends. To do so, it distinguishes among three different types of coverage…
Continue ReadingBoard and Shareholder Power, Revisited
By Simone M. Sepe. Full text here. This Article offers a novel theory of the optimal balance of power between boards and shareholders. It does so by shedding light on the information structure of the shareholder-manager relationship, showing that shareholders face problems of adverse selection in addition to classic problems of managerial opportunism, i.e., moral hazard.…
Continue ReadingThe Value of the Standard
By Norman V. Siebrasse & Thomas F. Cotter. Full text here. Standard-setting organizations (SSOs) often require member firms to license their standard-essential patents (SEPs) on undefined “fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory” (FRAND) terms. Courts and commentators in turn have proposed various principles for calculating FRAND royalties, among them that the royalty should not reflect “the value of…
Continue ReadingThe Substantially Impaired Sex: Uncovering the Gendered Nature of Disability Discrimination
By Jennifer Bennett Shinall. Full text here. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 was a landmark piece of legislation that prohibited private-sector employers from discriminating against qualified disabled workers. Although the Act is over a quarter-century old, legal scholars have never considered whether it has been uniformly efficacious—that is, whether the Act has served…
Continue ReadingCracking the Code: An Empirical Analysis of Consumer Bankruptcy Outcomes
By Sara S. Greene, Parina Patel & Katherine Porter. Full text here. Chapter 13 is a cornerstone of the bankruptcy system. Its legal requirements strike a balance between the rehabilitation of debtors through keeping assets and reducing debt, and the repayment of creditors over a period of years. Despite the accolades from policymakers, the hard truth…
Continue ReadingThe Death of the Firm
By June Carbone & Nancy Levit. Full text here. This Article maintains that the decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, which referred to the corporation as a legal fiction designed to serve the interests of the people behind it, signals the “death of the firm” as a unit of legal analysis in which business entities are…
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