Category: Articles

Abstract Class actions can have profound effects. But theorists, policymakers, and judges have long worried that attorneys can use them for their own advantage, reaping generous rewards for themselves while class members receive next to nothing. Unlike citizens or shareholders, members of a class cannot exercise democratic control over the attorney that nominally works on…

Abstract In this Essay, we propose a modified version of the SPAC, called the Activist SPAC, that is uniquely designed to allow the public to participate in the world of corporate activism. This version of the SPAC that we envision is designed for investment in public companies, as opposed to private ones. Such investment is…

Abstract First Amendment doctrine is becoming disembodied—increasingly detached from human speakers and listeners. Corporations claim that their speech rights limit government regulation of everything from product labeling to marketing to ordinary business licensing. Courts extend protections to commercial speech that ordinarily extended only to core political and religious speech. And now, we are told, automated…

Abstract To date, Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S.) guidance on cryptocurrencies has been thin. When the I.R.S. has issued guidance, it occasionally mishandles the technical details (such as confusing air drops and hard forks). More personnel (and personnel with greater technical expertise) would allow the I.R.S. to keep pace with the explosive growth of cryptocurrency. Nevertheless,…

Abstract Corporations are increasingly taking stands on a wide range of social issues: gun control, gender and race, immigration, abortion. Scholars have praised this development as the rise of responsible capitalism. Popularized accounts have attacked the “woke corporation” as ideological, elitist, and fraudulent. Both views examine the new “corporate activism” as a corporate governance matter….

Abstract Ordinarily, in federal court, only case-ending judgments can be appealed. The writ of mandamus is one exception to that so-called final judgment rule. Mandamus permits a litigant who is dissatisfied with a lower court ruling to obtain immediate reversal if, among other things, the ruling was indisputably wrong and the party seeking mandamus has…

Abstract Large asset managers like BlackRock and Vanguard have amassed staggering equity holdings. The voting rights that accompany these holdings give them enormous power over many of the world’s largest companies. This unprecedented concentration of influence in a small group of financial intermediaries is a pressing policy concern. While law and finance literature on the…

Abstract In 2020, the Supreme Court rendered a landmark decision in Trump v. Mazars establishing four factors for determining the validity of congressional subpoenas for a sitting president’s personal papers. In an unanticipated move, Chief Justice John Roberts added that recipients of congressional subpoenas have “long been understood” to retain not only constitutional privileges, but…

Abstract Myriad obstacles prevent victims of police violence from vindicating civil claims against the officers who have harmed them and the cities which have failed them. Though these plaintiffs face legal hurdles even getting into court, this article explores an unusual evidentiary imbalance that occurs for those few plaintiffs who do make it to trial….