The legal community suffered a great loss with the passing of Professor Harvey Goldschmid on February 12, 2015. A renowned legal scholar and policymaker, Professor Goldschmid greatly influenced modern securities law through his time at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where over the span of his career he served as a Commissioner, General Counsel, […]

Much attention has recently been given to the current Securities and Exchange Commission reporting requirements for Schedule 13D, the beneficial ownership form many investors must file to report their equity holdings. However, relatively less focus has been given to the Schedule 13G, the short-form filing option, which requires less infor­mation and tends to attract less attention. The choice between the 13G or the 13D filing can come down...

Administering Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act After Shelby County

Christopher S. Elmendorf* & Douglas M. Spencer**

Until the Supreme Court put an end to it in Shelby County v. Holder, section 5 of the Voting Rights Act was widely regarded as an ef­fective, low-cost tool for blocking potentially discriminatory changes to election laws and administrative practices. The provision the Supreme Court left standing, section 2, is generally seen as expensive, cumber­some, and almost wholly ineffective at blocking changes before they take ef­fect. This Article...

In 1970, Congress enacted the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to address concerns that inadequate safeguards existed to protect consumers in their interactions with credit reporting agencies. Government regulation of credit reporting is critical because the structure of the credit reporting industry does not adequately incentivize credit reporting agencies to maintain accuracy in consumers’ credit reports. Since the enactment of the FCRA, the...

International comity is one of the principal foundations of U.S. foreign relations law. The doctrines of American law that mediate the relationship between the U.S. legal system and those of other nations are nearly all manifestations of international comity—from the conflict of laws to the presumption against extraterritoriality; from the recognition of foreign judgments to the doctrines limiting adjudicative jurisdiction in international cases;...

Unorthodox Lawmaking, Unorthodox Rulemaking

Abbe R. Gluck,* Anne Joseph O’Connell,** and Rosa Po***

The Schoolhouse Rock! cartoon version of the conventional legislative process is dead, if it was ever an accurate description in the first place. Major policy today is often the product of “unorthodox lawmaking” and “unorthodox rulemaking”—deviations from tradi­tional process marked by frequent use of omnibus bills and multiple agency implementation; emergency statutes and regulations issued without prior comment; outsourcing...

The Supreme Court’s decision in Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. continues to obsess academics and courts alike. Despite all the attention, however, the “Chevron revolution” never quite happens. This decision, though seen as trans­formatively important, is honored in the breach, in constant danger of being abandoned, and the subject of perpetual confusion and uncertainty. This Essay seeks both...

Is the Price Right? An Empirical Study of Fee-Setting in Securities Class Actions

Lynn A. Baker,* Michael A. Perino,** and Charles Silver***

Every year, fee awards enable millions of people to obtain access to justice and strengthen the deterrent effect of the law by motivating lawyers to handle class actions. But little research exists on why judges award the amounts they do or whether they size fee awards correctly. The process remains a black box. Through a detailed study of 431 securities class actions that settled in federal district courts from 2007 through 2012, this Article...

Introduction Major League Baseball (MLB) has honored a single player by retiring his number for every club. Absent special commemorations, no player will wear the number “42” in honor of the man who broke the color barrier to become the first African American to play major league baseball in the modern era: Jackie Robinson. MLB […]

When a trademark registered with the Patent and Trademark Office is infringed, section 32 of the Lanham Act provides the trade¬mark registrant the opportunity to seek remedies in federal court. Thanks to a broad definition of “registrant,” the Act in fact extends standing beyond the registrant herself to her “legal representatives,” among others. This language has prompted courts to puzzle over the proper definition of a “legal representative.”...