Hello, everyone – I’m passing this along in case any of our readers have an interest, or know anyone who might have an interest.  And if anyone needs convincing as to why they should spend a semester or a year in New Orleans, email me privately and allow me to extol the city’s virtues.

Tulane Law School is currently accepting applications for a visiting tax professor for either the Fall of 2016 or for the entire 2016-2017 Academic Year.  Visitors would be expected to teach basic Income Tax and other tax related courses.  Applicants at any career stage are encouraged.  To apply, please submit a CV along with a statement of interest and any supporting documentation.  Applications and questions may be directed to Vice Dean Ronald J. Scalise Jr. at rscalise@tulane.edu.   Tulane University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer committed to excellence through diversity.  All eligible candidates are invited to apply. 

 

The shimmering mirage of summer has cast its spell on me, which means I am laboring under the delusion that I will have so much more time to do the thinking, learning, and writing that I want to be doing.  My work is increasingly dependent upon statistical evaluations that others do, and occasionally involves my own work in the area.   Several years ago I attended an empirical workshop for law professors at USC (something like this) taught by Lee Epstein and Andrew Martin that was an instrumental introduction and my only formal foundation in the area.  I have the bug and want to learn more!  But I don’t know the best way to go about it– piecemeal or full immersion–or even what all is available.  I compiled my research below and share the list for interested readers.  Comments encouraged by anyone who wants to share their experience with a listed option, general advice,  or add to this meager list.

Empirical Skills Resources:

Blogs like: Andrew Gelman &  Empirical Legal Studies Blog

Introduction/Immersion Workshops like:

 

Free electronic courses:

See, e.g., Stanford Introduction to Statistics (for more information on itunes university, see this article)

Recomended text books/books

Epstein/Martin Introduction to Empirical Research

Wooldridge, Introductory Econometrics 

BOOKS

Enroll in a course at your university (audit or pursue another degree) such as basic statistics or an Econometrics course.

-Anne Tucker

Beer is good.  It’s an opinion based on serious research.  A lot of beer laws are not good.  They often restrict beer distribution, limits sales, and generally make it harder for us to access good beverages.  

There have been some benefits of these restrictions.  The main one, probably, is that it provided the storyline for Smokey and The Bandit: 

Big Enos (Pat McCormick) wants to drink Coors at a truck show, but in 1977 it was illegal to sell Coors east of the Mississippi River without a permit. Truck driver Bo “Bandit” Darville (Burt Reynolds) agrees to pick up the beer in Texas and drive it to Georgia within 28 hours. When Bo picks up hitchhiker Carrie (Sally Field), he attracts the attention of Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason). Angry that Carrie will not marry his son, Justice embarks on a high-speed chase after Bandit.

(Note that IMDB’s description — “The Bandit is hired on to run a tractor trailer full of beer over county lines in hot pursuit by a pesky sheriff.” — seems to have confused the film with the Dukes of Hazzard.  Crossing state, not county, lines was the issue and Rosco P. Coltrane was not part of the Bandit films.  I digress.)  

In my home state of West Virginia, getting craft beer, until 2009, was hard. Beer with more than 6% ABV could not be sold in the state. All beer in the state is “non-intoxicating beer” but the definition was raised from 6% so that it now includes (and allows) all malt-based beverages between 0.5% and 12% ABV.  

Continue Reading Top Five Best Beers “Created” By Law

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Although other outlets in the blogosphere (including the blog he founded, The Conglomerate) beat us to the punch by a few weeks (see, e.g., here and here), I want to take time out today to congratulate D. Gordon Smith, currently Glen L Farr Professor of Law at BYU Law, on his appointment as Dean of BYU Law commencing May 1.  (That’s this coming Sunday!)

I have had the privilege of working with Gordon a number of times over the years (perhaps most notably in the formation and leadership of the AALS Section on Transactional Law and Skills and with The Conglomerate), and he is a consummate professional.  He represents his institution impeccably as a scholar and servant of the academy and the profession.  He has great judgment and is a kind, considerate soul.  I know that he will be a great leader for BYU Law.

My only regret is that Gordon will likely have to step back from the many leading roles he has had in pushing business transactional law scholarship forward.  His service as a symposium sponsor, conference panel organizer, moderator, discussant, and presenter are so appreciated by me.  [sigh]

Nevertheless, I admit it’s great to see another strong business law teacher, scholar, and servant in a law deanship.  I am delighted for him.  And I wish him all the best.

I wanted to drop a quick plug for the latest addition to the blawgosphere:  The Surly Subgroup: Tax Blogging on a Consolidated Basis.  My colleague, Shu-Yi Oei, is one of the founding members, and they’ve put together a really nice group of professors with a variety of interests who will post about a range of tax-related issues.  They just went live this week, but already there are a couple of posts up that may be of interest to BLPB readers, including one on the new regulations for Uber and Lyft drivers in San Francisco, one on whether organizations that distribute marijuana are eligible for charitable organization status for tax purposes, one on Donald Trump’s tax proposals, and one on Prince’s tax dispute with the French government.

If you’re like me, you have no idea what the phrase “Surly Subgroup” means.  No matter; Shu-Yi’s helpfully posted an explanation here.  Basically, affiliated corporate groups may file a consolidated tax return, raising questions about the extent to which losses in one can offset the income of another.  “Separate Return Limitation Year” (SRLY) rules govern that question for corporations that have losses prior to their affiliation with the group.  And those rules allow the “subgrouping” of corporations that were affiliated with each other prior to joining the larger group – hence, SRLY subgroups.

Last week I attended the Midwest Academy of Legal Studies (MALSB) Conference in Chicago, IL. MALSB is one of the 12 regional associations of legal studies professors in business schools that has an annual conference. The Academy of Legal Studies of Business (ALSB) is the national association and the annual national conference is similar to AALS.

Given that I started my academic career at a law school, and still attend some law school professor conferences, I notice differences between law school and business school legal studies professor conferences. While there are plenty of similarities between the conferences, I note some of the differences below.

Pedagogy Presentations. While law school professor conferences do usually address pedagogy in a few panels, the business school legal studies conferences I have attended seem to have a much stronger emphasis. For example, I think the regional and national ALSB conferences tend to have 30%+ of the presentations dedicated to pedagogy. Many of the business school legal studies conferences have master teacher competitions as well, where finalists present their teaching ideas or cases to the audience and a winner is chosen by vote. I think some of this focus on pedagogy is because a fair number of business school legal studies professors are full-time, non-tenure track instructors without research responsibilities. In any case, I generally find the pedagogy presentations quite useful and think law school professor conferences could increase their focus on the area.

Relative Lack of Subject Area Silos. Maybe the biggest difference I have noticed between law school professor conferences and business school legal studies conferences is the relative lack of subject area silos at the legal studies conferences. At most law school professor conferences I attend, I can and do spend the entire time listening to only business law (narrowly defined) presentations. I leave small and big law school conferences only having heard about business associations, corporate governance, M&A, and securities law. At MALSB I heard those presentations, but also heard talks on employment, constitutional, contract, tax, and white collar criminal law. The conference organizers try to keep the panels in generally the same subject area, but the panels bleed into other areas and there is almost never enough pure business presentations to keep you fully occupied at a legal studies conference. The relative lack of subject area silos is good and bad. It is good because the exposure to other areas can lead to new insights about your own areas, but I still attend some law school professor conferences for more focus and depth.   

Associated Journals. Most of the regional and national legal studies associations run blind, peer-reviewed law journals. In my opinion, these journals are excellent for our field and offer a nice alternative to law reviews. I’ve stuck with the national journals to date because a number of the regional journals do not have WestLaw or Lexis contracts yet. As I have said before, I think there is room for even more traditional peer-reviewed law journals, perhaps run by law schools or by law school associations.

Enjoyed my time at MALSB. The people and the presentations were definitely worth the trip.   

The Fulbright Scholar Program offers teaching, research or combined teaching and research awards in over 125 countries for the 2017-2018 academic year. Opportunities are available for college and university faculty and administrators, as well as for legal professionals and independent scholars.

This year, the Fulbright Scholar Program is offering over 90 awards in the field of Law. Exciting opportunities are available in many countries, including but not limited to:

We recently hosted a webinar on Fulbright opportunities in law. Staff provided an overview of awards open to academics and professionals, and a 2015-16 Fulbright alumnus spoke about his experiences and answered questions. Please follow this link to listen to the recording.

For further awards in the field of Law, please visit our new Opportunities in Law webpage. There you will find award highlights and examples of successful projects in the discipline.

 
For eligibility factors, detailed application guidelines and review criteria, please follow this link. Interested scholars may also wish to join My Fulbright, a resource center for applicants interested in the program.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens and the current competition will close on August 1, 2016.

ClassCrits IX

The New Corporatocracy and Election 2016 

Sponsored by

Loyola University Chicago School of Law

and The Loyola University Chicago Business Law Center

 Chicago IL * October 21-22, 2016

Call For Papers and Participation 

We invite panel proposals, roundtable discussion proposals, and paper presentations that speak to this year’s theme, as well as to general ClassCrits themes.

Proposal due: May 31, 2016.

As the U.S. presidential election approaches, our 2016 conference will explore the role of corporate power in a political and economic system challenged by inequality and distrust as well as by new energy for transformative reform. 

How might a sharper understanding of corporate power shed light on the current context of inequality and distrust?  How have legal changes in corporate rights and regulation reshaped political and social as well as economic activity?  Does the contemporary corporation simply empower individual human interests, as the Supreme Court suggested in the recent Hobby Lobby decision, or do the legal rights of corporations operate to narrow, distribute, and distort human rights and interests and citizenship?  What kind of person is the contemporary corporation and what does this mean for society, government, and law?   What is missing from the prevailing legal theory of the corporation as a nexus of contracts reflecting individualized economic transactions?  How does the contemporary legal understanding of the corporation help enforce and excuse inequality and instability? What structures of race, gender, and class have been advanced or obscured by the corporatocracy?   And finally, what law reforms might best reshape the corporation?  What alternative forms of business organization might offer better opportunities for more inclusive and responsible economic coordination? And, how might insights from other disciplines, including studies on religion and mindfulness, inform and inspire alternative visions and practices of law, democracy and political economy that promote human and (planetary) thriving? 

We invite panel proposals and paper presentations that speak to this year’s theme as well as to general ClassCrits themes.  See the full call for participation for details.

 In addition, we extend a special invitation to junior scholars (i.e., graduate students or any non-tenured faculty member) to submit proposals for works in progress. A senior scholar as well as other scholars will comment upon each work in progress in a small, supportive working session. 

Proposal Submission Procedure and Deadline

Please submit your proposal by email to classcrits@gmail.com by May , 2016. Proposals should include the author’s name, institutional affiliation and contact information, the title of the paper to be presented, and an abstract of the paper to be presented of no more than 750 words.  The Conference also welcomes panel proposals.  Junior scholar submissions for works in progress should be clearly marked as “JUNIOR SCHOLAR WORK IN PROGRESS PROPOSAL.” 

As a result of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) promulgated rules to regulate the swaps marketplace, securities trades that were previously unregulated and a contributing factor in the 2008 financial crisis.  The CFTC oversees the commodity derivatives markets in the USA and has dramatically increased regulations and enforcement as a result of Dodd-Frank.  As of January 2016, the CFTC finalized Dodd-Frank Rules  exemptive orders and guidance actions. Commodity derivatives market participants, whether acting as a commercial hedger, speculator, trading venue, intermediary or adviser, face increased regulatory requirements including:

  • Swap Dealer Regulation such as  De Minimis Exceptions, new capital and margin requirements to lower risk in the system, heightened  business conduct standards to lower risk and promote market integrity, and increase record-keeping and reporting requirements so that regulators can police the markets.
  • Derivative Transparency and Pricing such as regulating exchanges of standardized derivatives  to increase competition, information and arbitrage on price. 
  • Establishing Derivative Clearinghouses for standardized derivatives to regulate and lower counter party risks

The full list of CFTC Dodd Frank rulemaking areas is available here. In conjunction with the new regulations, the CFTC has stepped up enforcement actions according to a 2015 CFTC  enforcement report detailing 69 enforcement actions for the year.  Through these enforcement actions, the CFTC collected $2.8 billion in fines (outpacing SEC collections of $2 billion with a much larger agency budget and enforcement docket).

Continue Reading CFTC Regulation & Enforcement of the Swaps Marketplace