Forced to make mistakes: Reasons for complaining about Bebchuk's scheme and other market-oriented insolvency procedures

Bebchuk's proposal for bankruptcy reform is analysed, in particular his claim that using options is fair and prevents justified complains. However, the proposal has a systematic bias against junior creditors and former shareholders because they have to pay for unavoidable mistakes in estimating the company's value, may lack the financial resources to exercise their options and lose by a day of reckoning. A market solution will be specified that is simpler and at least as fair as Bebchuk's scheme according to his own standards. However, a complete solution to these problems may have to be a non-market one. JEL Classification G33 · K39 · K22     

Die Bewirtschaftung der genetischen Ressourcen des Tiefseebodens – Ein neues Seerechtsproblem?

Die genetischen Ressourcen des küstenfernen Tiefseebodens rücken angesichts ihrer besonderen biochemischen Eigenschaften zunehmend in den Vordergrund des wirtschaftlichen und wissenschaftlichen Interesses. Vorliegender Beitrag befasst sich mit der Frage, inwiefern eine nachhaltige Bewirtschaftung dieser Ressourcen vom geltenden See- und Umweltv?lkerrecht erfasst wird. Er legt den Schwerpunkt auf die Durchsetzung der einschl?gigen Hohe See-Bestimmungen und erteilt rechtspolitischen Forderungen nach einer Ausdehnung des Meeresbodenregimes eine Absage.     

Federal Reserve transparency: The more things change, the more they stay the same?

The calculus of electoral politics and the central bank’s bureaucratic objectives can explain the recent trend toward greater Federal Reserve transparency and can shed light on the likelihood that this trend will continue. If incumbent politicians see no electoral advantage in pressuring the Fed to become still more transparent, and if the Fed sees no benefit to greater transparancy, then further changes in current practice are unlikely. Private sector agents will continue to face a significant degree of uncertainty about the Fed’s policy objectives and about the information that policymakers consider in the monetary policy decision process.     

Is Judicial Review Democratic? A Comment on Harel

Law and Philosophy -     

Ethics, values and behaviours: comparison of three case studies examining the paucity of leadership in government

Three societies with similar initiatives for public service re-configuration and reform – the UK, Canada and Australia – are examined to highlight the many-faceted issues of public service ethics and the different approaches these governments have taken to re-building public trust and enhancing public service ethics in times of rapid change. These efforts for re-building an ethical public service are scrutinized according to four criteria for effectively leading change. Changes of public service values are also analysed as well as their implications for public servants.
Effectively, applied leadership is identified as the pillar of ethical practice – emphasizing the need for quality leadership development through on-the-job experience. Although legislation and codification are seen as necessary for building an ethical infrastructure that can help employees out of encountered dilemmas, the way forward is seen as nurturing an environment of trust and vigilance in which ethics are promoted through exemplary behaviour of leaders and employees alike.     

Introduction: Governing Regulatory Interaction: the Normative Question

Abstract:  The demise of the Keynesian National Welfare State and its transformation into a more competitive and interactive unit of governance has given rise to an increased interest in the processes that are shaping the legal framework for markets. For several decades, one force has been taken to be tantamount to the law of nature governing the interaction between jurisdictions, namely, the force of regulatory competition. However, this model is open to severe criticism of its emphasis on efficiency. First, elected decision-makers may not be interested in efficiency gains regardless of where the resulting distributive consequences may fall. Second, we suggest the theory of regulatory competition has a federalist bias that potentially blinds it to institutional alternatives. The model also rests on unexamined normative premises. Research has shown that competition is only one mode of regulatory behaviour. Cooperation and information flows play important roles in shaping regulatory activity as well. We contend that a more satisfactory model of regulatory interaction needs to take into account a variety of agents, standards, and systems. In devising such an alternative model, a satisfactory theory would have to understand the multiplicity of relevant agents beyond the narrow confines of the traditional nation-centred federal model. Standards guarding regulatory interaction would—not dissimilar to competition law—have to state its own limitations.     

Reconstructing Insurance Law: The Law Commissions' Consultation Paper

In July 2007 the English and Scottish Law Commissions published the consultation paper Insurance Law – Non-disclosure and Breach of Warranty (hereafter LCCP) which sets out in detail the Commissions' provisional proposals for the reform of insurance contract law with particular reference to the key areas of utmost good faith, warranties and agency. This article analyses, from a critical standpoint, the LCCP's principal conclusions and recommendations. It begins by noting, as a means of demonstrating that the current reform process should be informed by modern industry practices, that the ways in which modern insurance contracts are concluded differ significantly from those when insurance law was last reviewed by the Law Commission in 1980. The article then discusses the dichotomy between consumer and business insurance given that this distinction underpins the LCCP and its approach towards reforming the pre-contractual duty of good faith. By way of backdrop to the analysis, we consider the approach taken towards reforming the law governing intermediaries acting for prospective assureds during the disclosure process. Finally, the proposed rules for warranties and similar terms are examined. It is argued that the proposal to retain continuing warranties in business insurance contracts will, if implemented, represent a missed opportunity to rid insurance contracts of terms long criticised as draconian and disproportionate in their effect.