Posted on: December 30, 2013

Walter Oi, a pioneer in the field of law and economics, died Sunday, January 29, 2013 at the age of 84. I had the privilege of taking Professor Oi's class at the University of Rochester, but I didn't know many of the fascinating details of his life until long after I met him.

The Washington Times  has details regarding his remarkable career, including his pivotal role in the abandonment of the draft and the establishment of a volunteer military.

Category:
Tag: Law & Economics, Legal History, Legal Theory
Posted on: December 30, 2013

At Bloomberg Business Week, Joshua Brustein discusses Overstock.com's recent decision to begin accepting Bitcoin as a payment medium.

Brustein identifies one of the key issues facing merchants accepting Bitcoin payments, namely, the electronic currency's fluctuations in value:

Category:
Tag: Administrative Law, Commerce, Consumer Protection, International Law, Law & Economics, Securities, Social Media, Taxation, Technology & Law
Posted on: December 26, 2013

In The Ravenswood Investment Company, L.P. v. Winmill, C.A. No. 3730 (Del. Ch. Nov. 27, 2013), the Delaware Court of Chancery declined to grant summary judgment in favor of plaintiff on its claim that a corporation’s issuance of stock options was invalid for failure to obtain approval of the stock option plan by the corporation’s stockholders in a manner that complied with DGCL requirements regarding the dating of stockholder consents.  More specifically, plaintiff argued, based on Section 228(c) of the DGCL and the Chancery Court’s decision in H-M Wexford LLC v. Encorp, Inc., 832 A.2d 129 (Del. Ch. 2003), that the stockholder consent which approved the plan was invalid because it was not individually dated by the stockholder, but rather bore a pre-printed, “as of” date.  Section 228(c) of the DGCL reads: “every written consent shall bear the date of signature of each stockholder … who signs the consent….”  In H-M Wexford v. Encorp, Inc., the Delaware Court of Chancery declined to dismiss a claim that stockholder consents were invalid where multiple stockholders executed consents all containing a pre-printed “as of” date.  The Court’s ruling in H-M Wexford v. Encorp, Inc. appeared to be based on a strict construction of Section 228(c):

Category:
Tag: Alternative Business Entities, Civil Litigation / Civil Procedure, Corporations, Courts, Equity / Chancery, Fiduciary Duties, Securities
Posted on: December 19, 2013

Delaware Law Weekly has an interview with the Delaware Supreme Court's former Chief Justice Myron Steele, who retired from the bench last month.  Chief Justice Steele addresses a number of issues relating to Delaware corporate and business entity law, including what some commentators have called a "crisis of disagreement" between the Supreme Court and the Court of Chancery.

Category:
Tag: Alternative Business Entities, Commercial Litigation, Comparative Law, Contracts, Corporations, Courts, Equity / Chancery, Fiduciary Duties, Legal Industry, Legal Theory, Limited Liability Companies, Mergers and Acquisitions

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