Updating the SEC’s Exemptive Order Process Under the Investment Company Act of 1940 to Fit the Modern Era
Christopher P. Healey · July 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1535 (2011) In the late 1930s, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) was commissioned by Congress to study the then-unregulated investment company industry. This series of studies “laid the foundation” for the current system of investment company regulation under the Investment Company Act... Read More
Saxe’s Aphorism
John Copeland Nagle · July 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1505 (2011) If “Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made” then you should think twice about reading John Manning and Matthew Stephenson’s book, Legislation and Regulation. Manning and Stephenson are both Harvard Law School professors,... Read More
Seminole Rock’s Domain
Matthew C. Stephenson & Miri Pogoriler · July 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1449 (2011) In carrying out their duties, federal administrative agencies must often interpret statutes and regulations that are not entirely clear. Sometimes an agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous legal text may not seem like the best or most natural interpretation of... Read More
Agency Delays: How a Principal-Agent Approach Can Inform Judicial and Executive Branch Review of Agency Foot-Dragging
Michael D. Sant’Ambrogio · July 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1381 (2011) How long should it take a government agency to act on a nondiscretionary duty? When does the agency’s decisionmaking process become unreasonably delayed, warranting judicial intervention to compel agency action? These questions are central to the operation and accountability of the modern... Read More
Rulemaking, Democracy, and Torrents of E-Mail
Nina A. Mendelson · July 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1343 (2011) Bold claims have been made for democracy and federal administrative agency notice-and-comment rulemaking, now the dominant mode of administrative action. An agency’s public proposal of a rule and acceptance of public comment prior to issuing the final rule can help us view... Read More
Screening for Children: Choice and Chance in the “Wild West” of Reproductive Medicine
Benjamin B. Williams · June 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1305 (2011) While the struggle over abortion rights in the United States continues vociferously, as recently highlighted by the passage of nationalized health care, a new type of reproductive medical procedure has arrived, unnoticed and unregulated. Preimplantation genetic screening (“PGS”) and in vitro fertilization... Read More
We Can’t Stay This Way: Changing the Standard for Staying Injunctions Pending Appeal After eBay
Daniel C. Tucker · June 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1276 (2011) This Note proposes a new framework for the Federal Circuit to use when deciding whether to stay an injunction pending appeal in patent cases. The new framework would allow the court to clearly and quickly articulate the reasons for its decision while... Read More
Balancing the ERISA Seesaw: A Targeted Approach to Remedying the Problem of Worker Misclassification in the Employee Benefits Context
Tracy Snow · June 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1237 (2011) Many companies are increasingly using independent contractors to reduce costs in an environment characterized by unexpected fluctuations in the market and intense global competition. Independent contractors, also called “freelancers,” are self-employed individuals who render services directly to companies outside the scope of the... Read More
Arrested Development: Reforming the Federal All-Arrestee DNA Collection Statute to Comply With the Fourth Amendment
Ashley Eiler · June 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1201 (2011) Under a federal statutory scheme, the fact that an arrestee is never formally charged or convicted of a crime has little impact on the analysis or continued use of her DNA profile; the federal government has no obligation to take affirmative steps to... Read More
(Spy) Game Change: Cyber Networks, Intelligence Collection, and Covert Action
Robert D. Williams · June 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1162 (2011) This Article makes two related arguments: one descriptive and one normative. Descriptively, it contends that the use of computer networks in carrying out intelligence operations entails a blurring of the conceptual and legal distinction between intelligence collection and covert action. In light... Read More