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The Right to Feast and Festivals
Get PDFFestive behavior is a basic characteristic of human life, as evidenced from ancient times. Humans need to use ceremony and ritual in specific places and times to mark their triumphs, joys, and sorrows. However, some categories of individuals are harmed because they cannot celebrate the most important highlights of their lives through such festive feasts: prisoners, mariners at sea, soldiers on the frontlines, workers subject to the pressures of ungenerous employers, towns occupied by oppressive invaders, and impoverished individuals who cannot afford customary celebrations, among others. When feasts and festivals are restricted, societies lose well-being, communities lose identity, and individuals lose freedom of expression.
This normative Article helps fill a gap in the legal literature, which overlooks feasts as a right based on reason, some constitutions, laws, and international human rights. This Article calls for formal recognition and robust and coherent protection of a general right to feast, in constitutional law and in the international framework of human rights. This Article provides three kinds of foundational arguments—factual, rational, and legal—explaining why feasts must be protected, and what must be protected
The Generalist Externship Seminar: A Unique Curricular Opportunity to Teach About the Legal Profession
Get PDFThis article explores the role that a generalist externship seminar can play in teaching law students about the legal profession - lawyers, the institutions in which they practice, and the markets for their services. After reviewing the evolution of the externship course and externship seminar in the legal curriculum, the article turns to a discussion of the absence of opportunities at most law schools for students to study and learn about the legal profession. It contends that the absence of serious attention to the profession in the curricula of most law schools does a disservice to law students, who need specific, reliable information about the diverse institutions of the profession in order to chart their future careers, and to society as a whole, which relies on the legal profession to make real our nation\u27s commitment to equal justice under the law. The article argues that generalist externship seminars offer a unique opportunity for students to examine critically the legal profession and the diverse institutions of law practice. It presents an approach to a generalist externship seminar that adopts a deepened understanding of the institutions of the profession as a learning objective and offers suggestions for designing such a seminar to maximize student learning
FedAccounts: Digital Dollars
Get PDFWe are entering a new monetary era. Central banks around the world- spurred by the development of privately controlled digital currencies as well as competition from other central banks-have been studying, building, and, in some cases, issuing central bank digital currency ( CBDC ).
Although digital fiat currency is one of the hottest topics in macroeconomics and central banking today, the discussion has largely over- looked the most straightforward and appealing strategy for implementing a U.S. dollar-based CBDC: expanding access to bank accounts that the Federal Reserve already offers to a small, favored set of clients. These accounts consist of entries in a digital ledger-like other digital currencies--and are extremely desirable, offering high interest, instant payments, and full government backing with no limit. But U.S. law restricts these accounts to an exclusive clientele consisting primarily of banks. Privileged access to these accounts creates a striking asymmetry at the core of our monetary framework: government-issued physical currency is available to all, but government-issued digital currency (in the form of central bank accounts) is not.
This dichotomy is unwarranted. Congress should authorize the Federal Reserve to give everyone--individuals, businesses, and institutions--the option to maintain accounts at the central bank. We call these accounts Fed Accounts. Unlike the CBDC approaches currently under discussion, which would use complicated and inefficient distributed ledger technology and be walled off from the existing system of money and payments, Fed Accounts would be seamlessly interoperable with the mainstream payment system, relying on technologies that the Federal Reserve has used for decades
Classaction.gov
Get PDFThis Essay proposes the creation of a federally run class action website and supporting administration (collectively, Classaction.gov) that would both operate a comprehensive research database on class actions and assume many of the notice and claims-processing functions performed by class action claims administrators today. Classaction.gov would bring long-demanded transparency to class actions and, through forces of legitimization and coordination, would substantially increase the rate of consumer participation in class action settlements. It also holds the key to mitigating other problems in class action practice, such as the inefficiencies and potential abuses associated with multiforum litigation, the limited success of the Class Action Fairness Act\u27s notice requirement in spurring effective public oversight of class actions, and the potential for abuse inherent in cy pres settlement awards
To Win Friends and Influence People: Regulation and Enforcement of Influencer Marketing After Ten Years of the Endorsement Guides
Get PDFFor the last ten years, social media influencer marketing has been regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under the FTC’s Section 5 “unfair practices” authority, guided by the Endorsement Guides, a “best practices” document published by the FTC. This is a fairly “light” regulatory scheme where violators typically enter no-money, no-fault consent decrees and generally undertake to do a better job following the Endorsement Guides in the future. During this time, the practice has flourished, and companies are spending significant portions of their marketing budgets on social media influencer advertising. Recently, the FTC has submitted proposals for increased enforcement and penalties in this space based on a belief that misinformation is plaguing the internet. This Article reviews the history of influencer marketing and examines the current regulatory regime. This Article contends that the current regime, while not perfect, is preferable to a strict rule-based approach with substantial penalties due to the evolving nature of social media and consumer perception in this area
Chaos or Continuity? The Legal Profession: From Antiquity to the Digital Age, the Pandemic, and Beyond
Get PDFThe idea of individuals entering into a social contract to relinquish some of their rights in order to have a civilized society protect their fundamental rights originates at least as early as ancient Greece, where it was espoused by the philosopher Epicurus. Implicit in a social contract is the enactment of laws to achieve a democratic, civilized society and the concept of advocacy. Advocacy exists to protect an individual’s rights. The legal profession originated organically as the citizens of ancient Greece and Rome recognized the need for professional advocates. From this nascent beginning, the legal profession has evolved over centuries to adjust to cultural changes in society.
The digital age has altered cultural norms and permeated society, thereby challenging the legal profession to adapt. Technology’s tremendous impact on the legal profession appears not only in a lawyer’s daily practice but also in the development of alternative business models designed to increase access to legal services and in the clamoring for regulatory reform. No doubt, the COVID-19 Pandemic has further propelled the legal profession to innovate and embrace technology.
This Article briefly explores the development of the legal profession from its origins in ancient Greece and Rome to its reemergence in medieval England and then fast-forwards to the beginnings of the legal profession in the United States. Next, this Article explores the historical impact of technology on the legal profession and the profession’s ongoing challenge to adapt to the digital age. Finally, this Article concludes with some observations about the practice of law during the COVID-19 Pandemic and the future of the legal profession
The Quick (Spending) and the Dead: The Agency Costs of Forever Philanthropy
Get PDFAmerican philanthropic institutions control upwards of a trillion dollars of wealth. Because contributions to these entities are deductible from both income and estate taxes, and the entities’ earnings are tax-free, that trillion dollars is heavily underwritten by contemporary taxpayers. Law offers little assurance that those who pay will be those who benefit. To the contrary, since these subsidies become more valuable the longer charitable assets are left unspent, the law strongly encourages philanthropies to save rather than spend, even in situations of great current need. Other legal rules further encourage grantmaking institutions to strive to exist “in perpetuity.”
This Essay offers new empirical evidence of the social cost of forever philanthropy, that is, of institutions that long outlive their founders. Drawing on a relatively unique dataset of foundation donors, and combining it with a large archive of tax returns filed by private foundations, I search for evidence that managers of long-lasting organizations depart significantly from the preferences of the organization’s supporters. I find that a firm’s overhead, or the ratio of administrative expenses to grants made, jumps by about 12% as soon as the organization’s last living donor dies. Payout rates, or the share of assets spent each year, move sharply in the opposite direction, falling about 7% at that time.
I interpret these findings as evidence of substantial agency costs. Since the timing of the donor’s death is relatively random, these outcomes offer convincing causal evidence that the ability of a donor to monitor her foundation’s managers importantly affects whether those managers follow her wishes. I argue that overhead and payout changes in the directions I observe strongly suggest that managers, once free from direct oversight, are operating the firm for their own comfort and security. Thus, by unnaturally extending the lifespan of foundations, law is encouraging wasteful allocation of taxpayer supported charitable resources.
Therefore, I suggest several policy options that would reduce the agency-cost problem. Among others, I support maintaining or increasing legal requirements for mandatory distributions by private foundations and closing legal loopholes offered by a relatively new charitable phenomenon, the donor-advised fund
Creditors, Keepers: Passive Retention of Estate Property and the Automatic Stay
Get PDFThe automatic stay provision is one of the most important provisions in the Bankruptcy Code. Until recently, however, it has remained unclear if passive retention of property of the bankruptcy estate must be immediately turned over to the debtor under the automatic stay provision. The Supreme Court decided in City of Chicago v. Fulton that passive retention does not violate the automatic stay, saving creditors from the consequences of retaining estate property. The debate about the stay, however, is far from over. Many circuit courts were already concerned about the policy issues deriving from the City of Chicago maintaining possession over debtors’ vehicles, rendering debtors unable to get to work or pay off their debts during the bankruptcy plan. Justice Sotomayor remains frustrated about these policy concerns and called on Congress to change the Code and enable debtors to be more successful in their payment plans. This Note suggests Congress make language and cross-reference changes to the Bankruptcy Code to satisfy both textual and policy issues associated with the current Code