Business Law

Towards Sovereign Equity

Posted on by Nancy White

Stanford Journal of Law, Business, and Finance, Vol. 21, No. 2 (2016)

Stephen Park, Tim R. Samples

Sovereigns are unique market participants in the global financial system, and sovereign debt markets largely operate in a legal and regulatory void. This Article adds an important and timely perspective by examining the concept of equity in sovereign debt finance. Governments, unlike corporations, rely almost exclusively on debt to externally finance their investments and operations. GDP-linked securities, which provide interest payments indexed to the sovereign issuer’s rate of growth, are sovereign debt instruments with certain equity-like characteristics. This Article considers whether innovation towards sovereign equity can help mitigate problems associated with sovereign debt crises. To address this question, we analyze the use of GDP-linked securities in recent sovereign debt restructurings by Argentina, Greece, and Ukraine. Drawing on this analysis, we explore more broadly the legal implications of sovereign equity, and conclude that these applications offer opportunities to help manage sovereign finance in the absence of readily enforceable international financial regulation. Full article.

Contracting for Innovation and Innovating Contracts

Posted on by Nancy White

Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation (2016)

Thomas D. Barton, Gerlinde Berger-Walliser, Helena Haapio

This special issue of the Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation (JSCAN) is devoted to “contracting for innovation and innovating contracts.” From the inception of planning for the issue, the co-editors hoped to attract contributions from a full range of professionals engaged in contract theory and practice: research academics, contract managers, corporate executives, and legal counsel, plus what JSCAN Editor-in-Chief Tyrone Pitsis told us are called “pracademics:” those who straddle research and commercial environments, making concrete contributions through collaborative projects, experiments, interviews, software development, or theory-building. JSCAN is a natural publication outlet for such partnerships, since so many of the 40,000 worldwide members of the International Association of Contract and Commercial Management (JSCAN’s parent organization) are thought-leaders in every aspect of commercial contracting. Full article.

An Efficient Investment-Risk Model of Compliance

Posted on by Melissa Ferrigno

The CLS Blue Sky Blog– Corporate compliance — the internal processes that firms use to ensure that their employees do not violate applicable laws and regulations — has become big business. Regulation of business continues to grow, punctuated by landmark laws that have re-shaped the financial services (the Dodd-Frank Act) and health care (the Affordable Care Act) industries in the United States. Further, federal regulators have…

Bird Speaks About Conscious Capitalism

Posted on by Claire Hall
Portrait of Robert Bird.
Robert Bird (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)

UConn Business Law Professor Robert Bird was a panelist at a presentation on “Conscious Capitalism” on Nov. 17 at the Toyota Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, Conn., sponsored by the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce.

The presenters discussed conscious capitalism—business enterprises that follow a strategy in which they seek to benefit both human beings and the environment—its purpose and vision and what’s happening on a global scale.

Other participants included Doug Rauch, former president of Trader Joe’s, Larry Bingaman, president and CEO of the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority and Kate Emery, founder and CEO of The Walker Group, a technology services firm.

Need for Compliance Officers Skyrockets

Posted on by Claire Hall

Business man signing a contract.

School of Business Partners with UConn Law to Offer New Certificate in Corporate/Regulatory Compliance

The University of Connecticut School of Business and the School of Law have partnered to create a certificate program in Corporate and Regulatory Compliance in response to the business community’s growing demand for risk-avoidance expertise.

“This is one of the fastest-growing specialties in business today and, with the right credentials, experts are commanding top jobs,” said Business Law Professor Robert Bird. Bird is one of the co-founders of the graduate-level program with Peter Lindseth, the Olimpiad S. Ioffe Professor of International and Comparative Law and Director of International Programs at UConn Law. Continue Reading

Building a Culture of Corporate Compliance

Posted on by Claire Hall

This event has been cancelled.

Executive Breakfast, Building a Culture of Compliance, Nov. 15, 2016 promotional graphic.

Corporate compliance is one of the hot-topic issues in business today, and it will be the the subject of a Nov. 15 Executive Education breakfast program, “Building a Culture of Compliance,” offered by the University of Connecticut School of Business at its Stamford Campus. Continue Reading

PROMESA and Puerto Rico’s Pathways to Solvency

Posted on by Melissa Ferrigno

Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation – Facing a self-declared “death spiral” of public debt, the Governor of Puerto Rico announced a debt moratorium earlier this year, halting payments to bondholders. A series of missed payments followed, including a landmark default on constitutionally guaranteed bonds in July. At the same time, Congress passed the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA or “promise” in Spanish), which combines a debt restructuring system with federal controls over the island’s finances. But enacting PROMESA is only a first step. Coordination and engagement with creditors is the next step—and an even more complicated one—in Puerto Rico’s long journey towards solvency and fiscal stability.