The literature on economic and corporate law convergence has largely been a conversation about the West. In particular, it focuses on the influence of Anglo-American (and principally American) norms and practices, primarily on those of Western European nations. As such, it is unidirectional in...

Does corporate governance play a role in income inequality? If so, how? This paper pursues this inquiry, beginning with an examination of the causes of significant income inequality throughout twentieth and early twenty-first century American history. The parallel developments of financial...

In re Caremark, decided in 1996, established for the first time a director's duty to monitor under Delaware law. A significant amount of jurisprudence and commentary has developed. Almost all of this literature parses the language of the case and those following, and disregards the underlying...

The important study of the relationship between finance and economic growth has exploded over the past two decades. One of the most significant open questions is the role of the public equity market in stimulating growth and the channels it follows if it does. This paper examines that question...

This paper looks at the growing phenomenon of deferred corporate criminal prosecutions from a new perspective. The literature accepts the practice and is largely concerned with the degree to which efficient and effective criminal deterrence is achieved through pretrial diversion. I examine the...

This paper is a call for the design of indigenously appropriate Chinese corporations.I begin by asking two questions: Why have independent directors and boards of directors failed to protect minority shareholders in Chinese listed state owned enterprises? Is there a solution to this...

This essay describes various financial, economic, and legal developments in the United States from 1952 until 2007 and argues that they suggest a transformation of the American economic system from capitalism to one I term "financialism." Financialism is a system in which the real economy plays...

This brief essay explores the economic and social legitimacy of modern financial markets, with particular attention to the relationship between risk and responsibility. Using the markets for corporate common stock and mortgaged-backed securities as illustrations, and modern portfolio theory as...

The Speculation Economy identifies the moment in American history when finance triumphed over industry. It shows how the birth of the giant modern corporation spurred the rise of the stock market and how, by the dawn of the 1920s, the stock market left behind its business origins to become the...

In recent years there has been significant ongoing academic debate over the expansion of public shareholders' participation rights in corporate governance. The debate has accompanied a dramatic increase in institutional shareholder and hedge fund activism attempting to influence the conduct of...