SelectedWorks @ Widener University Commonwealth Law School
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Understanding the 2012 Master Securities Forward Transaction Agreement
No full textThe trading of forward-settling agency mortgage-backed securities (“MBS”) comprised of pools of home loan mortgage loans, executed in contemplation of securitization through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, is one of the largest and most active markets in the world
A Technological Trifecta: Using Videos, Playlists, and Facebook in Law School Classes to Reach Today’s Students
No full textThis essay examines how law school education can be modernized through the use of technology. First, the essay acknowledges that the current use of technology in most law school classrooms lacks appeal to today’s students. It briefly explores the use of PowerPoints, podcasts, and clickers and suggests that students have grown bored with this technological trio because of overuse and familiarity. Second, the essay proposes that today’s students will be better served in class if professors would use the technology that students more typically use. It advocates for the addition of internet videos, music playlists, and Facebook groups to the law school classroom. Finally, the essay proposes a methodology for incorporating the technological trifecta into law school classrooms and the advantages of doing so
Chapter 9 Plan Confirmation Standards and the Role of State Choices
No full textBecause so few municipalities have ever filed for bankruptcy, none of the Chapter 9 confirmation standards have benefitted from extensive judicial scrutiny. The standards are particularly undeveloped as applied to cities and counties, whose debt structure and service obligations are more complicated and diverse than those of the special purpose districts whose cases generate the vast majority of Chapter 9 judicial opinions. The lack of clarity is not only bad for distressed cities and their creditors, it is undesirable from a public policy standpoint. States can choose whether to permit their municipalities to file for bankruptcy, and clear plan confirmation standards can inform a state in deciding whether or not to permit filing and in fashioning its own municipal financial distress resolution program.This essay, prepared for a municipal bankruptcy symposium at Campbell Law School, explores the relationship between the unique structure and goals of Chapter 9 and its confirmation standards in the context of the confirmation battles taking place in Stockton and Detroit. Congress designed municipal bankruptcy law to assist states in resolving the financial distress of their municipalities. Although several courts have made clear that once a municipality files for bankruptcy the Supremacy Clause renders ineffective state laws governing priorities, little attention has been paid to the amount of deference that a court should give to choices that a state makes during a municipality’s bankruptcy that affect the treatment of creditors. The essay proposes a clearer role for state choices in the bankruptcy process, but concedes that because states do not always participate in the financial rehabilitation of their cities, a clearer role for the state may not always be the answer to interpreting the Chapter 9 confirmation standards
A Technological Trifecta: Using Videos, Playlists, and Facebook in Law School Classes to Reach Today’s Students
No full textThis essay examines how law school education can be modernized through the use of technology. First, the essay acknowledges that the current use of technology in most law school classrooms lacks appeal to today’s students. It briefly explores the use of PowerPoints, podcasts, and clickers and suggests that students have grown bored with this technological trio because of overuse and familiarity. Second, the essay proposes that today’s students will be better served in class if professors would use the technology that students more typically use. It advocates for the addition of internet videos, music playlists, and Facebook groups to the law school classroom. Finally, the essay proposes a methodology for incorporating the technological trifecta into law school classrooms and the advantages of doing so
It\u27s My Party and I\u27ll Do What I Want To: Political Parties, Unconstitutional Conditions, and the Freedom of Association
No full textTo this point, cases and commentary have portrayed controversies about regulation of political parties as requiring a choice between the autonomy of parties and the power of the government to regulate elections. Supporters of government regulation have seen such regulation as worth the cost of limiting parties\u27 freedom. Opponents have argued that parties\u27 First Amendment rights entitle them not only to run themselves as they see fit but to receive the assistance of the government in doing so.This Article has suggested a third way. By permitting government to condition benefits on parties\u27 waiver of First Amendment rights, this new proposal respects parties\u27 rights and treats parties as autonomous organizations, while still permitting government to encourage parties to act in ways that promote society\u27s democratic ideals
Easing the Guidance Document Dilemma Agency by Agency: Immigration Law and Not Really Binding Rules
No full textImmigration law relies on rules that bind effectively, but not legally, to adjudicate millions of applications for immigration benefits every year. This article provides a blueprint for immigration law to improve its use of these practically binding rules, often called guidance documents. The agency that adjudicates immigration benefit applications, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), should develop and adopt its own Good Guidance Practices to govern how it uses guidance documents. This article recommends both a mechanism for reform, the Good Guidance Practices, and tackles many complex issues that USCIS will need to address in creating its practices. The recommended reforms promote increased accessibility, transparency and fairness for immigration law stakeholders, including unrepresented parties.This article also contributes to the larger administrative law debate about guidance documents. Guidance documents present a conundrum for administrative law because they have powerful positive and negative features. Because the Administrative Procedure Act does not require agencies to consider public input in the crafting of these rules, agencies may respond more quickly and flexibly than notice and comment rulemaking would allow. On the other hand, an agency policy statement (a type of guidance document that explains an agency’s current thinking on a particular issue) is effectively binding even though it is not legally binding. Applicants are free to argue in an adjudication that a different approach should apply. But stakeholders tend to follow the rule announced in the policy statement; they follow the rule as if it were legally binding. Thus, there is a practically binding effect without the opportunity for notice and comment.In developing a prescription for USCIS, this article concludes that the best approach to reforming agency use of guidance documents is an agency-by-agency approach. It rejects a one-size-fits-all approach in favor of the opportunity for each agency to formalize its own practices. Such tailored reform recognizes that every agency is different, with its own guidance culture and communities of stakeholders. This approach is designed to ease the negative effects of guidance documents while maximizing their positive features
