For those familiar with Japan, the simple mention of the
Yasukuni Shrine raises the specter of controversy. The Shrine is
an edifice of the Meiji Era that sprung from humble and innocent
beginnings into the site of international controversy. The shrine
was originally created in 1869, to commemorate government
soldiers killed in the Boshin…[Read more]

Is federal diversity jurisdiction case specific or claim specific? The
complete-diversity rule makes clear that, when a diversity defect is
noted in a putative diversity action, the court lacks subject-matter
jurisdiction over that action as a whole. But does the court’s
jurisdiction nevertheless extend to claims between diverse parties,…[Read more]

Many, perhaps the majority, of Chapter 13 cases end up being
converted to Chapter 7. The converted Chapter 7 case is not a new
case, it is a continuation of the case that was commenced with the
filing of the original Chapter 13 petition. However, there are important
structural differences between the two chapters, including over
what…[Read more]

The serial filing of chapter 13 cases solely for the purpose of frustrating and
delaying foreclosure or other legitimate collection efforts, and with no serious
intent to reorganize, has long been perceived as an abuse of the bankruptcy
system requiring a fulsome response. In 2005 Congress seized on a solution
involving withdrawal or…[Read more]

In 1992, the United States Supreme Court entered its decision in Dewsnup
v. Timm, which, although widely criticized by courts and commentators alike,
has nonetheless endured for thirty years. Opportunities to overrule Dewsnup
have been squandered even as many courts have expressed reservations over the
wisdom and coherence of its reasoning.…[Read more]

Prior to enactment of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection
Act of 2005, one of the most vexing and controversial questions in the consumer
bankruptcy arena was whether a debtor who was current on her payments
to a secured lender could retain the collateral both during and after the bankruptcy
case by continuing to make the…[Read more]

The language and concept of equality among creditors, which has long dominated
Anglo-American bankruptcy jurisprudence and analysis has recently been cast into
question by a leading bankruptcy scholar who has constructed a compelling and
disquieting case for the dual propositions that the equality principle in contemporary bankruptcy law and…[Read more]

Conflicting social philosophies with their infinite variations will
inevitably influence law making and law interpretation. Consciously or
unconsciously, social and political attitudes affect even those concerned
with such an apparently technical matter as the definition of preferential
transfer in bankruptcy. As it evolved over time from its…[Read more]

There has been an awful lot written over the past several years about the
current state and/or the future of legal education.’ From formative and
summative assessment of learning outcomes, to distance learning, to the impact of
technology and machine learning on law practice, to use of alternatives to the
LSAT in admissions, to student debt,…[Read more]

With the effective demise of the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”),
state law is widely expected to play an expanded role in international
human rights litigation. Commentators have focused on commonlaw
tort as the presumptive vehicle for such suits. However, this
Article argues that state unfair competition statutes offer an
underexplored…[Read more]

Globalization’s seamless integration of manufacturing across
extended supply chains has brought unprecedented efficiency to global
economic production. The results often seem magical. Components
sourced from dispersed suppliers in multiple countries are assembled
into finished goods that arrive miraculously on our doorsteps at the click
of a…[Read more]

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s vision of the “Chinese Dream” has
captured the popular imagination. As a slogan, the Chinese Dream
is intentionally broad. Intended to inspire rather than prescribe, it
captures diverse aspirations including dreams of material prosperity,
environmental sustainability, national rejuvenation, and…[Read more]

There is a crisis in international human rights law. In a series
of cases, the Supreme Court has drastically reduced the Alien Tort Statute’s
(“ATS”) utility as a vehicle for transnational justice, effectively ending a
remarkable four-decade string of human rights litigation under the statute.
Since 1980, private plaintiffs have filed hundreds…[Read more]

The Honorable Mark W. Bennett is only the most recent
observer to lament that “[t]he standards for determining witness
credibility have persisted as if frozen in time, based on
myth, and completely unconnected with current knowledge of
cognitive psychology.” 2 Judge Bennett’s frustration is understandable.
The belief that most people can…[Read more]

In April of 2015, the Michigan State Law Review and the
Research, Writing, and Advocacy program of Michigan State
University College of Law collaborated to host a symposium devoted
to the topic of Persuasion in Civil Rights Advocacy. This intersection
of the fields of law, persuasive strategies, and social justice provided
a wide-ranging…[Read more]

Corporate directors have been utilizing a potent mechanism in
dealing with shareholder activism and shareholder litigation: the right to
unilaterally amend corporate bylaws. Directors have exercised this right, for
instance, to impose various requirements on who can nominate a director or
call a special shareholder meeting, or to designate an…[Read more]

For dual-class companies, which offer two or more classes of
stock with differential voting rights, stock dividends have become a potent
weapon for corporate boards to reallocate voting control without shareholder
intervention. For example, the board of CBS Corporation proposed to
distribute voting stock to all shareholders to drastically…[Read more]

The recent rise of shareholder engagement has revamped companies’ corporate governance structures so as to empower shareholder rights and to constrain managerial opportunism. The general trend notwithstanding, this Article uncovers corporate spin-off transactions-which divide a single company into two or more companies-as a unique mechanism that…[Read more]

Do corporate boards care about compliance? Surely they
should, because of the potentially catastrophic consequences of
ignoring it. Take the example of the recent compliance failures
at Wells Fargo, the large bank, which pioneered a strategy of
“cross-selling” financial products to its customers.’ This turned
out to be profitable, and the…[Read more]

How can we ensure corporations play by the “rules of the game”-that is,
laws encouraging firms to avoid socially harmful conduct? Corporate
compliance programs play a central role in society’s current response.
Prosecutors give firms incentives-through discounts to penalties-to
implement compliance programs that guide and monitor employees’…[Read more]