Reconsidering the Separation of Banking and Commerce

Mehrsa Baradaran · February 2012 80 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 385 (2012) This Article examines the long-held belief that banking and commerce need to be kept separate to ensure a stable banking system. Specifically, the Article criticizes the Bank Holding Company Act (“BHCA”), which prohibits nonbanking entities from owning banks. The recent banking collapse has...
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Direct (Anti-)Democracy

Maxwell L. Stearns · February 2012 80 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 311 (2012) Legal scholars, economists, and political scientists are divided on whether voter initiatives and legislative referendums tend to produce outcomes that are more (or less) majoritarian, efficient, or solicitous of minority concerns than traditional legislation. Scholars also embrace opposing views on which lawmaking...
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The Case for a Federal Corporate Charter Revocation Penalty

Kyle Noonan · February 2012 80 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 602 (2012) Though American corporations are creations of state law, the federal government predominantly regulates their behavior. This mismatch helps explain both the inadequate deterrence that the current system of criminal sanctions imposes on corporations as well as the unmet social need for retribution. This...
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A Patently Public Concern: Using Public Nuisance Law to Fix the False Patent Marking Statute After the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act

Richard A. Crudo · February 2012 80 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 568 (2012) The year 2010 was marked by an explosion of lawsuits from enterprising patent attorneys seeking to take advantage of the now-superseded false patent marking statute, which proscribed marking one’s product with a patent number when no patent existed. The statute’s qui tam...
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The Paradox of McDonald v. City of Chicago

David S. Cohen · November 2010 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. ARGUENDO (2010) On the last day of its 2010 Term, the Supreme Court issued the landmark decision of McDonald v. City of Chicago, holding that the Second Amendment is incorporated against state and local governments.  On its face, the 5–4 decision is simple enough,...
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