Corporate & Securities Law

Today in History -- November 3

Posted on November 03, 2010
1600 ? Theologian Richard Hooker dies at Bishopbourne in Kent. The "via media" he articulated in his Lawes of Ecclesiastical Pietie, with its emphasis on both tradition and reason, will have enormous influence on English thought, and his clear prose....

Real-life hypo on contract conditions

Posted on November 03, 2010
One mate's lack of a fishing license has led to the loss of a $1.2 million prize for the crew of a Hatteras (N.C.) fishing boat and a suit for breach of contract. Andy Thomasson of the boat Citation ()left)...

News Briefs -- November 1, 2010

Posted on November 02, 2010
SYRACUSE (N.Y.): "A private company will take over health care at Onondaga County?s three correctional facilities starting next month in a move that?s expected to save taxpayers $1.5 million over three years. The union representing registered nurses at the facilities...

Sherlock Holmes on gratuitous transfers

Posted on November 02, 2010
Problems involving gratuitous transfers are found in both property and contract law. A fair chunk of the law of promissory estoppel, I've always thought, has its roots in the failure of property law (and the law of estates and trust)...

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Today in History -- November 2

Posted on November 02, 2010
1602 ? British merchant Edward Colston is born at Bristol. He will make an enormous fortune from the slave trade, but will use philanthropy to clean up his name?a lesson that many future plutocrats will take to heart. 1772 ?...

News Briefs -- November 1, 2010

Posted on November 01, 2010
RICHMOND HEIGHTS (Mo.): "Municipal officials said Friday they were preparing a breach-of-contract resolution against the developer who proposed a $394 million project for the Hadley Township neighborhood." HONOLULU: "A controversial ruling in Hawaii that damage resulting from construction defects does...

Symeonides on comparative choice of law in contracts

Posted on November 01, 2010
Much of American commercial law is based on a paradox: commercial transactions are so complex that it is impossible to develop detailed rules in advance, yet after the fact the correct resolution of a dispute is so plainly obvious that...

Today in History -- November 1

Posted on November 01, 2010
1604 ? William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice has its first performance, at Whitehall Palace in London. 1 765 ? The British Parliament enacts the Stamp Act (right) on the 13 colonies in order to help...

What do ContractsProf and Susan Lucci have in common?

Posted on November 01, 2010
The good folks at Lexis/Nexis, showing perhaps more good sense than tact, have just notified us here at ContractsProf that we did not make this year's list of the Top 25 U.S. business blogs. But we were nominated, and our...

Students sue colleges, claiming they were promised jobs

Posted on November 01, 2010
Students who enrolled at MedVance Institute in hopes of getting jobs in the health care field are suing, claiming damages for "breach of contract, fraudulent misrepresentation, unfair and deceptive trade practices and more." Students claim that they were encouraged to...

No right to jury on unconscionability claim

Posted on November 01, 2010
A Kentucky man was not entitled to get to a jury on the question whether his credit card contract with Discover was unconscionable, according to an unpublished ruling on Friday from the Kentucky Court of Appeals. In Dungan v. Discover...

Weekly Top Ten

Posted on October 31, 2010
Not much change at the top, but three new papers crack our weekly Top 10. Following are the top ten most_downloaded papers from the SSRN Journal of Contract and Commercial Law for the sixty days ending October 24, 2010. (Last...

Today in History -- October 31

Posted on October 31, 2010
1517 ? On the Eve of All Hallows, law-school dropout Martin Luther posts his 95 theses on the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, Saxony.. 1659 ? John Bradshaw (right), Lord Chief Justice of England, who presided at the...

Frightening: A Halloween Costume Contract

Posted on October 31, 2010
The Washington Post gets in the Halloween spirit with reporting on this costume contract that a Michigan junior high school required parents and students to sign before the students could wear costumes to school. Here's the deal (no emphasis added...

Pesky Typo Dooms Luxury Condo Developer

Posted on October 31, 2010
In New York, a protracted court battle rages between a luxury real estate developer and 41 condo owners seeking the return of their deposits. Many of their sales contracts for units at The Rushmore were executed at the height of...

Happy Halloween!

Posted on October 31, 2010
There's one one horror film I know of where the heroes include a business lawyer and a university professor, but that one is one of the best. It was the scariest of my childhood, hands down. FGS

Today in History -- October 30

Posted on October 30, 2010
1340 ? The last Muslim invasion of the Iberian peninsula is turned back by Alfonso IV of Portugal and Alfonso XI of Castile at the Battle of Rio Salado. 1485 ? One of the few English monarchs with a head...

News Briefs -- October 30, 2010

Posted on October 30, 2010
CHICAGO: "A group of hedge funds sued the four banks that funded Tribune Co.?s 2007 leveraged buyout, alleging that the lenders knowingly rendered the company insolvent and precipitated its 2008 bankruptcy." PERTH: "ASX-listed Macarthur Coal on Thursday advised shareholders that...

Couric, facing "massive" salary cut, hits road to talk to little people

Posted on October 30, 2010
Things aren't going well at CBS for America's Sweetheart, Katie Couric. As her five-year deal comes to a close with her newscast dead last for the fifth straight year, reports are that she'll either have to take a big pay...

There are lots of lawyers who want

Posted on October 29, 2010
There are lots of lawyers who want to be pop music stars. It?s more unusual for a pop star to want to be a lawyer. But that?s the story of popular Korean singer Nikki (So Eun) Lee, who?s now apparently...

Today in History -- October 29

Posted on October 29, 2010
1618 ? The father of the tobacco industry, Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded at Whitehall at the age of 66 for alleged treason. 1787 ? Mozart's opera Don Giovanni premieres at the Estates Theater in Prague. Turn up the volume...

Capping interest rates for "predatory" lenders

Posted on October 29, 2010
Voters in the Big Sky Country will be voting this coming Tuesday whether to put a cap on the interest rates charged by "nontraditional" lenders like payday and auto-title loan companies. On the Montana ballot is an initiative that would...

Beh & Stempel on "unilateral" insurance contracts

Posted on October 29, 2010
In the mail today, a nice reprint of the recent Cardozo Law Review article by Hazel Beh (Hawaii) and Jeff Stempel (UNLV), called Misclassifying the Insurance Policy: The Unforced Errors of Unilateral Contract Characterization. 32 Cardozo L. Rev. 85 (2010)...

"God loves a cheerful giver"; India doesn't care about the "cheerful" part

Posted on October 29, 2010
Giving away money to worthy causes is a good thing. Such a good thing, apparently, that the Indian government has decided to make it mandatory. The government has instituted a rule that requires Indian corporations to give 2 percent of...

Deadweight loss explained . . .

Posted on October 29, 2010
. . . by the economists at Marginal Revolution. It's a concept some people have trouble with, and Alex Tabarrok offers a nice illustration. FGS

NY Magistrate Recognizes Cal. Surrogacy Contract

Posted on October 28, 2010
In a New York child-support proceeding, Family Court Support Magistrate Rachel J. Parisi (Suffolk County) upheld a California judgment of paternity for twins conceived pursuant to the terms of a gestational surrogacy contract. The judge accorded the judgment full faith...

Bonding at the Meat Market

Posted on October 28, 2010
Over at Prawfsblawg, Florida State's Dan Markel discusses a problem: interviewees at the AALS job conference who waste the time of law school hiring committees by agreeing to be interviewed (and even to be brought back for a campus visit)...

N.J. law school clinics subject to Open Meetings law

Posted on October 28, 2010
A New Jersey court has apparently ruled that law clinics at the state?s two government-owned law schools (Rutgers-Camden and Rutgers-Newark) are subject to the state Open Public Records Act. Material protected by the attorney-client privilege can be withheld, but other...

Ghosh on commercializing data

Posted on October 27, 2010
Wisconsin's Shubha Ghosh will be presenting Commercializing Data at the Texas Wesleyan Law School Faculty Workshop today (October 27) at noon. In the paper, a work in progress, he argues that contemporary debates about the commercialization of data reflect an...

Higher education bubble, textbook division

Posted on October 27, 2010
This is a pretty sobering chart included in a pretty sobering piece of commentary by UW-Flint economics professor Mark J. Perry. It shows the rise in textbook and educational materials prices as compared to house prices and the Consumer Price...

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