SelectedWorks @ Widener University Commonwealth Law School
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Assessing a Decade of Interstate Bank Branching
No full textU.S. banking regulation has historically prohibited the ability of a bank to open or own a branch located outside of its home state, commonly referred to as interstate branching. Only since the passage of the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act (IBBEA) in 1994 have banks have been able to engage in interstate branching, though subject to state restrictions. Despite IBBEA\u27s removal of branching barriers, it still allowed the states to impose restrictions on the entry of out-of-state branch offices. This article describes the changes in Federal and state interstate branching law since passage of IBBEA and reviews how initial (1994-1997) and evolving (1998-2004) interstate branching laws affect out-of-state branch growth. It concludes that anticompetitive state provisions restricted out-of-state growth when those provisions were more restrictive than the provisions set by IBBEA or by neighboring states
Navigating the U.S. Transition to Sustainability: Matching National Governance Challenges With Appropriate Legal Tools
No full textSustainable development would require the United States to maintain and improve human prosperity while at the same time greatly reducing its consumption of energy, materials, water, and land. The scope of the challenge includes, but is not limited to, climate change. This Article suggests the elements of a legal structure for achieving sustainability.
Because achieving sustainable development is a significant learning experience, the United States will need to employ a form of governance—reflexive governance—that requires constant learning and supportive citizens and stakeholders who are also working to ensure sustainability in their own activities. The two basic problems reflexive governance must address are the multigenerational nature of the effort and the need for across-the-board integration of environmental considerations into decision-making. The suggested legal structure includes a required national strategy, long-term and short-term goals, better integration of environment into decision making across and among various levels of government, public education and engagement, a broad range of legal and policy tools, feedback mechanisms to foster learning, and designated governmental entities for coordinating or managing this effort as well as providing an independent review of their efforts. The Governmental Performance and Results Act and existing environmental laws provide a starting point for this legal structure, but would have to be significantly amended
The Aspiration to be a Catholic Social Scientist in the Eyes of Robert Coles: The Search for Wisdom in an Information Age
No full textThe Catholic social scientist seeks to understand his world so he can know his God. He is called by love to the questions that he addresses, and the answers he finds to those questions draw him to a call of service, a call to make a life other than his own at least a little better. One of the pre-eminent Catholic social scientists of our time is the psychiatrist, medical doctor, and “hard” scientist, Dr. Robert Coles. This article seeks to consider five pieces of advice that Dr. Coles offers to those aspiring to be Catholic social scientists. First, work with a sense of wonder and awe. Second, be a troublemaker. Third, never be content to observe life but place yourself in the midst of life even if that means being in the midst of trouble. Fourth, learn not only from the brilliant but also from the broken. Finally, do not just evaluate, but seek to heal
Stripping Judicial Review During Immigration Reform: The Certificate of Reviewability
No full textCongress contemplated a drastic change during the 2005-2006 immigration reform debate that sought to narrow access to the federal courts: a proposed certificate of reviewability requirement. The requirement would compel foreign nationals subject to an administrative removal order to obtain permission from a single federal court of appeals judge to access the federal courts. The U.S. House of Representatives endorsed the requirement but the U.S. Senate dropped it from its slate of immigration reform priorities. Why did the requirement disappear from the Senate\u27s agenda during an era of increased congressional restrictions on judicial review of immigration cases? A definitive answer to such a question may be elusive, but this article sheds some light by examining the fate of the certificate of reviewability from a public policy perspective. This public policy perspective leads to two observations about the legislative history. First, the proponents of the requirement advanced a characterization of the underlying policy problem that conflicted with one advanced by federal court of appeals judges who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. There is evidence the judges\u27 definition of the policy problem influenced the committee to turn its back on the requirement. Second, the Senate\u27s attention to other immigration reform policy problems may have distracted the Senate from the requirement. This focus on other policy conflicts meant that the Senate was not attending to the certificate of reviewability.What can the legislative history of a failed immigration jurisdiction-stripping provision reveal? By examining the legislative history through a public policy lens, this article enhances understanding of the legislative dynamic underlying an effort to strip immigration judicial review
Developing a Comprehensive Approach to Climate Change Policy in the United States That Fully Integrates Levels of Government and Economic Sectors
No full textThe United State Supreme Court\u27s holding in Massachusetts v. EPA that greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act makes it virtually certain that federal climate change legislation will be accomplished by amending that Act. This Article explains and justifies an approach to federal climate legislation that uses and builds on the Act\u27s various tools, including air quality standards, technology-based limitations, and state implementation plans. The Article discusses models for climate response that have emerged from state responses to date and presents the reductions that could be achieved if these were scaled up to the federal level. Federal legislative proposals to date fail to build upon these state lessons and do not provide adequate mechanisms to support the multi-faceted economy wide approach that can achieve needed reductions in a cost-effective manner. We suggest a mechanism whereby the Clean Air Act could be applied or adapted to incorporate state creativity to support the integrated, economy-wide approach that is needed. This approach could also motivate both the individual action and the international cooperation that are required to address climate change effectively
Achieving Early and Substantial Greenhouse Gas Reductions Under a Post-Kyoto Agreement
No full textThis article explains why policy makers should seriously consider substantial early reductions in greenhouse gas emissions as a part of any post-Kyoto framework, and sets out suggested elements of a framework for early action in a post-Kyoto agreement. Substantial early reductions are needed because of the growing urgency of the climate change science, the precautionary approach identified in the Framework Convention on Climate Change as a decision-making principle, the fact that cost-effective measures are now available, and the significant non-climate benefits (security, economic, social, and environmental) that can be achieved by implementing them. As a practical matter, too, long-term greenhouse gas emissions are virtually impossible without short-term reductions. The Convention also includes ethical obligations on developed countries to take leadership in addressing climate change and to reduce impacts on developing and vulnerable countries - which require early and substantial action.
The suggested framework for early action includes a short-term goal for stabilizing global greenhouse gas emissions, involves both developed and developing countries, and includes an agreement to deepen the emissions reduction commitment of the Kyoto cap-and-trade program. In addition, the parties should negotiate separate agreements concerning particular policies or economic sectors. These additional agreements make substantial short term emission reductions more likely, or increase the size of those emissions reductions. This appears to be true regardless of how the cap-and-trade part of the agreement is structured. The article proposes a process for identifying, agreeing to, and implementing policies and measures that will maximize the benefits resulting from short-term action. This legal structure would supplement, not replace, any system for achieving long-term goals that emerges from the Bali Action Plan
Federal Climate Change Legislation as If the States Matter
No full textThe growing prospect of comprehensive national climate change legislation raises many important questions about the role of state efforts in a national climate change program. This article identifies the key state/federal issues that should be addressed in any comprehensive national comprehensive climate change legislation. It also provides recommendations for resolving these issues. In addition to a cap-and-trade program and uniform national standards for some sectors, federal climate change legislation should adopt and modify the State Implementation Plan model in the Clean Air Act. That is, states should be given responsibility through State Implementation Plans to achieve specified emissions reductions, including those from electricity demand reduction
Collateralizing Over-the-Counter Derivative Obligations
No full textFeaturing 16 chapters, the book provides a practitioner-oriented perspective on fixed charges over circulating assets, the role of the security trustee and the prospects for reform of the English personal property security regime. The book also examines the use of security interests to support derivatives and private equity transactions and the taking of security interest over aircraft, bank accounts, cross-border receivables, intellectual property and ships. Guidance is also provided on secured finance transactions in Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Poland and Russia and the use of credit derivatives to manage credit risk