13203 research outputs found
Sort by
First Amendment Freedoms Diluted: The Impact of Disclosure Requirements on Nonprofit Charities
Get PDFSince the birth of the Bill of Rights in 1791, the freedoms protected by the First Amendment have been cherished by all members of this nation. The First Amendment provides that “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech.” Over time, courts have acknowledged that the freedom to speak freely means very little if the guarantee is not protected by an additional right: the freedom to associate. Thus, the freedom of expressive association stands as an essential component of an individual’s free speech rights and state infringement on associative rights has the power of potentially chilling speech, especially from an organizational standpoint.
Throughout the relatively short history of the right to associate, the courts traditionally applied strict scrutiny to governmental attempts to intervene in organizations, whether such intervention be via imposing penalties on disfavored groups, requiring disclosure of membership groups, or attempting to interfere with a group’s internal organization or affairs. However, in two recent cases, Citizens United v. Schneiderman and Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra, two different appellate courts found the freedom of expressive association of either organization was not infringed upon when applying intermediate, exacting scrutiny to state laws mandating the disclosure of nonprofit organizations’ annual Form 990s. These forms, filed yearly with the IRS to maintain tax-exempt status, include a Schedule B that contains a list of the names and addresses of all significant donors to the organization. The plaintiffs in both cases argued the forced disclosure of these donors would chill the organization’s freedom of speech rights by making it more difficult to secure donations from individuals who feared being publicly associated with organizations promoting various minority viewpoints. Ultimately, both appellate courts found these arguments to be unpersuasive and upheld the state laws.
Part I of this Note briefly discusses the history and evolution of the freedom of association before articulating what the doctrine looks like today. Part II summarizes the decisions in Citizens United and Americans for Prosperity Foundation while analyzing the reasoning used by both courts in reaching their decisions. Finally, Part III weighs the merits of this decision by considering the arguments raised by both sides both during and in the wake of the decisions. This Note concludes that the appellate courts veered away from traditional preferences of protecting First Amendment rights by upholding a state-sanctioned, non-political disclosure requirement for non-profit charities. Both appellate courts reached this conclusion by applying a less rigorous scrutiny test than that normally applied to statutes with the potential of affecting First Amendment freedoms
Assessing the Liability Exposure of Public Joint-Stock Companies\u27 Directors Under the Liability Rules in Saudi Arabia
Get PDFHistorically, the business environment in Saudi Arabia has been considered low risk. However, with the introduction of Vision 2030 in 2016, the socioeconomic transition and regulatory evolution witnessed in Saudi Arabia have reshaped the business environment and redefined the risk landscape faced by public companies and their boards. The increase in the market regulator’s monitoring and penalizing activities, the legislative reforms of management liability rules, the approval of securities class action, and the unprecedented rise in shareholder activities against their board of directors are recent developments that directly affect directors’ exposure to liability. Generally, operating in a legal system with perplexing liability and protection rules is associated with negative implications, such as risk aversion, which leads directors to turn down profitable, yet risky, business projects, and it discourages qualified individuals from serving as directors, which negatively affect the company’s performance and its profitability.
This study seeks to understand the effect of the current changes in the work environment on the liability exposure of public companies’ boards of directors, and to assess the adequacy of the current regulatory framework of directors’ liability. Thus, 65 public companies’ directors were surveyed, and it was found that their fear of personal liability has increased dramatically in recent years. In addition, by using deductive reasoning, this study demonstrates that the current liability system of directors’ liability as embodied in the Companies Law of 2015 does not adequately respond to the emerging risks in business. Saudi Directors are not granted a sufficient level of protection and guarantees to enable meaningful and efficient board performance, which subsequently impedes an optimal performance of the company. Such regulatory insufficiency centers on defects in the liability standard of directors, the regulator’s lack of recognition of risk shifting mechanisms, and the inadequacy of directors’ rights. This study offers practical recommendations to improve the system of directorial liability and protection that meets the challenges and new risks within the business environment in Saudi Arabia
Comparative Research of the Plea Leniency System of China
Get PDFThis dissertation mainly discusses the Plea Leniency System that was recently legislated in China. Plea Leniency had completed a 2-year tryout stage, and was officially legalized into the Criminal Procedure Law of China in Oct.2018. The application of pleading procedures seems inevitable around the world, and operates differently in each country. As a result, there exist both similarities and differences between Chinese Plea Leniency and American plea bargaining.
This dissertation contains comparative research, empirical research and case research. Chapters I to III will form the first half of my research. This part contains my retrospective research of pleading procedure’s past development in China; the analysis of China’s legislation on Plea Leniency; and my first stage empirical research, in cooperation with Shanghai X District’s People’s Procuratorate. Chapter IV to VII will form the second half of my research: Based on my second stage empirical research, also combined with my comparative research between Chinese and American pleading systems, these four chapters will further compare Chinese Plea Leniency and American plea bargaining systems, in four different aspects. Chapter VIII contains my summary
Super-Engaged: From Presidential Task Forces to the NFALA
No full textKaelyne Yumul Wietelman, JD 2019, an associate at Kelley Drye in Washington DC, provides advice on how to balance a practice at a highly respected firm with active community and volunteer engagement. In this episode we hear about Kaelyn’s work with the American Bar Foundation and the National Filipino American Lawyers Association.https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/coldcall/1003/thumbnail.jp
Pathological Racism, Chronic Racism & Targeted Universalism
Get PDFRace and law scholars almost uniformly prefer antisubordination to anticlassification as the best way to understand and adjudicate racism. In this short Essay, we explore whether the antisubordination framework is sufficiently capacious to meet our present demands for racial justice. We argue that the antisubordination approach relies on a particular conception of racism, which we call pathological racism, that limits its capacity for addressing the fundamental restructuring that racial justice requires. We suggest, in a manner that might be viewed as counterintuitive, that targeted universalist remedies might be more effective to address long term racial inequality but might also be the more radical approach to addressing racial discrimination
Accessibility
Get PDFSusan deMaine\u27s contribution to the open access textbook, Introduction to Law Librarianship, is chapter 3, Accessibility.
Abstract: Equitable access, which includes access for people with disabilities, is included in the first principle of the ethical codes of both the American Association of Law Libraries and the American Library Association. Accessibility in law libraries that are open to the public is an especially keen concern because it implicates access to justice and government information, both of which are key to a successful democracy. This chapter will introduce concepts that help us think productively about accessibility and explore accessibility issues in both physical and digital spaces, considering a few issues unique to law libraries.https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facbooks/1268/thumbnail.jp
Constitutional Court Landscape Post - Arab Spring: A Survey of Design
Get PDFThis is a case study seeking to survey the landscape of constitutional courts in the MENA region after the Arab Spring. To accomplish this, the case study identifies the traditional functions of constitutional courts, then analyzes the design features present in post-Arab Spring constitutional courts to determine how and to what extent these design features help – or hinder – each court in fulfilling its traditional functions. Analysis of design features will focus on (1) which (and how many) constitutional matters the court is empowered to decide (court jurisdiction), (2) the processes by which a court is presented a matter upon which it is empowered to decide (court access), and (3) the process by which judges are appointed to the court (court appointment)
