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Shielding of Assets and Lending Contracts
No full textThe primary means of enforcement of legal liabilities is through the seizure of debtors’ assets. However, debtors can shield their assets in various ways and thereby reduce the power of enforcement. This paper studies the circumstances under which a debtor would choose to shield assets and the value of assets that would be shielded. A key idea is that borrower’s wealth mutes shielding incentives. Intuitively, avoiding debts through shielding requires that enough assets will be shielded, for else the debts can be collected from exposed assets. A wealthier debtor would thus need to shield more assets, and at a greater cost, than a debtor with limited wealth. Using this basic understanding, I develop a theory of asset shielding and explore its implications for incomplete lending contracts, explaining the role of equity agreements, equity cushions and collateral, and debt forgiveness, and explore the some of the policy implications
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No full textMatt Frazier\u27s discovery in the post-hurricane wreckage of his Gulfport, Mississippi home puts him at the center of a conspiracy, leaving Matt to rely on a small group of friends and family to help keep him safe and alivehttps://scholarship.law.ua.edu/harper_lee_prize_books_2017/1013/thumbnail.jp
Write to die
No full textHollywood\u27s latest blockbuster is all set to premiere -- until a faded superstar claims the script was stolen from her. To defend the studio, in steps The Harold Firm, one of Los Angeles\u27s top entertainment litigation firms and as much a part of the glamorous scene as the studios themselves. As a newly minted partner, it\u27s Rory Calburton\u27s case, and his career, to win or lose. But the seemingly tame civil trial turns lethal when Rory stumbles upon the strangled body of his client\u27s general counsel. And the ties that bind in Hollywood constrict even tighter when the founder of the Harold Firm is implicated in the murder. Rory is certain the plagiarism and murder cases are somehow connected, and with the help of new associate Sarah Gold-- who\u27s just finished clerking the Chief Justice -- he\u27s determined to get answers. Will finding out who really wrote the script lead them to the mastermind of the real-life murder? -- Page 4 of coverhttps://scholarship.law.ua.edu/harper_lee_prize_books_2017/1022/thumbnail.jp
The Failings of Alabama Water Law
Get PDFAlabama policymakers have for decades discussed how to improve Alabama\u27s water law but have made no progress in finding solutions A persistent theme in the hesitation to adopt waterpolicy legislation is that we must better understand our water resources before we can take action Our waterpolicy problems however have very little to do with the nature of our water resources and everything to do with our legal regime Alabama uses nineteenthcentury common law to govern its water resources and that common law is inadequate to deal with twentyfirstcentury water uses The current common law renders unlawful many existing diversions of water that serve vital municipal agricultural commercial and industrial purposes and inhibits Alabama\u27s efforts to create economic growth deal with increasing population protect the state\u27s worldclass environmental resources and address the consequences of drought in a changing climate Why then have we not yet acted Paradoxically part of the answer may be the abundance of Alabama\u27s water resources we have so much water that few have been motivated to challenge current unlawful uses of water Without such challenges the need to fix the common law does not appear pressing But the best time to develop a comprehensive solution to the failings of Alabama\u27s water law is when there is no emergency At a minimum the legislature must adopt a statute that 1 eliminates the outdated restrictions of the common law 2 permits interbasin transfers of water 3 protects the instream flows needed by our ecosystems and 4 empowers an agency to coordinate these uses Optimally Alabama would adopt the Regulated Riparian Model Water Cod
The Concept of Property
Get PDFThis Article confronts the conceptualistnonconceptualist divide in property theory Specifically the Article addresses the primary normative objection to the conceptualist account of property In the course of addressing this criticism the Article bridges an important gap in the literature and provides a new way of understanding the legal concept of property as distinguished from other types of legal arrangementsThe conceptualistnonconceptualist divide centers on whether the legal concept of ˜property\u27 can be said to have criterial features “ that is features that make ˜property\u27 both unique and distinguishable from other legal concepts such as contract Conceptualists understand the concept of ˜property\u27 to include one or more criterial features Most commonly conceptualists understand ˜property\u27 to necessarily include the principle of numerus clausus a common law rule that imposes a restriction on the forms of ownership On the other hand some nonconceptualist scholars have criticized the conceptualist emphasis on numerus clausus as a misplaced and as unduly formalistThis Article demonstrates that the central normative concern raised by critics of the conceptualist account of property is unwarranted Concerns that fall within the realist critique of formalism do not obtain in the context of the specific type of formalism that contemporary property conceptualists embrace This is because the function of form restriction is not to arrive at a correct or even a substantively justifiable classification of interests in a given dispute but rather to arrive at a classification Numerus clausus is first and foremost a coordinating tool Rather than reflecting or directing deep normative commitments about the distribution of assets form restriction primarily serves to sort interests into a finite and therefore manageable set of categorie
Commentary: What Line?
No full textCivil Rights in the American Story charts the ambiguous and contested meanings of civil rights in law and culture and confronts a variety of important questions about race in contemporary America. How important is civil rights in America\u27s story of possibility and change? How has it transformed the very meaning of citizenship and identity in American culture? Why does the subject of race continue to haunt the American imagination and continue to play such a large role in political and legal debates? Do affirmative action and multiculturalism promise a way out of racial polarization, or do they sharpen and deepen it? Are there new and better ways to frame our commitment to equal justice? This book brings together the work of five distinguished scholars to critically assess the place of civil rights in the American story. It offers different ways of talking about civil rights and different frames through which we can address issues of civil rights in the future.https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_bookchapter/1033/thumbnail.jp
Standing, Politics, and Exhaustion: A Response to Legislative Exhaustion
Get PDFProfessor Michael Sant\u27Ambrogio\u27s article, Legislative Exhaustion, usefully approaches the problem of legislative standing by abandoning the typical Article III standing analysis and making instead a separation-of-powers argument. His theory-that Congress may sue the President only when it has no legislative avenue for addressing its problems-provides both a workable account of and a limiting principle for suits by the legislative branch against the executive. His analysis, however, raises questions regarding the effect of legislative lawsuits on the constitutional balance of powers. This Essay suggests that these questions should be more fully explored before Professor Sant\u27Ambrogio\u27s approach can be adopted. It concludes by noting that the exhaustion principle, while helpful in the fraught context of legislative standing, should not be expanded to standing more generally (as a few courts appear to have suggested)