Business Law



Professor Stephen Park Named Satell CSR Fellow

Stephen Park dressed formally while speaking at a table.

Solutions to Climate Change, Poverty, Other Social Challenges Require Collective Effort, New Approaches

Business Law Professor Stephen Park has been named to the newly created position of Satell Fellow in Corporate Social Responsibility.

“The School of Business is deeply invested in the development of corporate social responsibility guidelines and shares the belief that this work is of utmost importance,” said Dean John A. Elliott. Continue Reading





UConn Alum Malfettone Speaks About Corporate Compliance as a Competitive Advantage

John Malfettone '77 speaks about corporate compliance as a competitive advantage.
John Malfettone ’77 speaks about corporate compliance as a competitive advantage. (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)

John Malfettone ’77, senior managing director and chief compliance officer at Clayton, Dubilier, and Rice, spoke to 100 students and alumni about “Corporate Compliance as a Competitive Advantage.” Continue Reading


Protecting the Vulnerable

India Gravel Quarries (U.Roberto (Robin) Romano Papers, Archives & Special Collections, University of Connecticut Library)

UConn Human Rights Conference Gathers Experts to Address Ways to Watch Over Garment Workers

The new shirt that you are wearing is impeccably tailored and bears a prominent designer label, so it must be responsibly sourced.

Right? Continue Reading



Puerto Rico’s Debt Dilemma and Pathways Toward Sovereign Solvency

American Business Law Journal, Vol. 54, No. 1, 2017

Stephen Park

Puerto Rico, as a quasi-sovereign U.S. territory, is confronting a debt crisis of unparalleled legal complexity. This article analyzes the collective action problems in sovereign debt finance in the context of Puerto Rico’s quasi-sovereign debt dilemma. We examine how sovereign debtors engage with their private creditors in the absence of a formal bankruptcy regime and show how various legal incentives, imperatives, and constraints shape the degree and form of creditor engagement. Drawing on this conceptual framework, this article analyzes the role of these factors in the market-based debt restructuring by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and hypothesizes how these factors may influence the statutory restructuring process underway under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA). Despite the idiosyncratic aspects of Puerto Rico’s debt crisis, the potential pathways for debtor-creditor cooperation in Puerto Rico provide valuable insights on the various ways that law influences debtor-creditor cooperation in sovereign debt finance beyond the enforcement of state-based public regulation and contract-based private legal commitments. Full article.


Using Proactive Legal Strategies for Corporate Environmental Sustainability

Berger-Walliser, G., Shrivastava, P., Sulkowski, A. Using Proactive Legal Strategies for Corporate Environmental Sustainability. 6 Michigan Journal of Environmental and Administrative Law, 1-36 (2016). Date Published: June 2017

Gerlinde Berger-Walliser

We argue that proactive law can help organizations be more sustainable. Toward that end, this Article first summarizes proactive law literature as it pertains to corporate sustainability. Next, it examines a series of cases on the pivotal nexus between proactive law and corporate sustainability. It then advances novel propositions that connect proactive law to central organizational design elements. The discussion traces further implications and suggests fruitful avenues for research and ways of using proactive law for firms to become more sustainable. Full article.