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The Purloined Debtor: Edgar Allan Poe’s Bankruptcy in Law and Letters
Get PDFThis Article represents the first interdisciplinary case study of Edgar Allan Poe’s bankruptcy as an inflection point in the legal and cultural history of debt. Although Poe hardly leaps to mind for portrayals of legal procedure, much of his oeuvre reveals a terror of legal process as an interstitial principle. The anxiety around identity in Poe’s work reveals an ongoing struggle between an individual subject and two opposing yet equally degenerate legal statuses: possession and indebtedness. This opposition renders a distinct form of legal process legible in these texts: the then emerging law of bankruptcy. Poe declared bankruptcy at a unique moment in American legal history, where for thirteen months in the early 1840s, America had a debtor-focused bankruptcy law under which a bankrupt could seek protection. Poe’s case, read alongside his literary output, reveals both legal and narrative contradictions at the heart of bankruptcy, which the 1841 Act did a poor job of resolving. On the one hand, bankruptcy reframes the identity of the debtor, who becomes the object of a quasi-inquisitorial process. On the other, bankruptcy restores some degree of material agency to the debtor as a subject, often at the expense of creditors
Intercountry Adoption Fraud: How Poorly Implemented Legislation Effects Countries, Children, and Parents
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Corporate Compliance’s Achilles Heel
No full textIn the two decades that have elapsed since the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, corporate compliance has solidified into an essential, universally respected corporate governance function. And yet, its future may be compromised by a development that compliance scholars have yet to address, namely the political polarization of our society. As the workplace becomes more politically polarized, and government enforcement institutions either become or simply appear more politicized, compliance programs are apt to encounter difficulties in ensuring adequate flows of information and prompt detection and redress of wrongdoing. With Sarbanes-Oxley in its rearview mirror, this article -- written for a UCLA symposium examining Sarbanes-Oxley\u27s impact- contextualizes this problem and with its implications in mind, explores several workplace developments, such as the rise of automation and remote work
His Ship Has Sailed—Expelling Columbus from Cultural Heritage Law
Get PDFLatin America is a region rich with cultural heritage that existed for centuries before its antiquities were looted, trafficked, and sold on the international market. The language used to classify these objects of cultural heritage has been a tool of oppression and erasure. In reference to those objects of historical importance, auction houses, dealers, museums, and even looters themselves consistently use the term “Pre-Columbian.” “Pre-Columbian,” which means “before Columbus,” defines the historical period prior to the establishment of the Spanish culture in the national territories of Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean islands. In fact, this definition is the basis of the 1972 Pre-Columbian Act in the United States, which addresses trafficking of Latin American sculptures, murals, and architectural elements. This Article examines the use of “Pre-Columbian” in American cultural heritage law in the context of linguistic settler colonialism, which results in the oppression and continued trauma of cultures through the use of harmful language. This Article argues that any reference to Columbus in the laws impacting Latin American cultural heritage contributes to the erasure of Indigenous peoples. Its use advances the fallacy that these peoples were “primitive,” “tribal,” or even “uncivilized.” It also perpetuates the belief that these groups only exist through their connection to Europe. Through a comprehensive examination of the term “Pre-Columbian” and its detrimental impacts on Indigenous cultures, this Article begins the process of removing problematic language from cultural heritage law
