Featured Alumnus
- Our “Citadel of Truth,” William Brantley Aycock
September 27, 2009 | 1:37 pm
Dedication to Volume 73
This issue of the North Carolina Law Review is dedicated to Professor and Chancellor Emeritus William Brantley Aycock, a man who has graced the UNC School of Law in one way or another for fifty years. Albert Coates observed that there is a special spirit here at the UNC School of Law, [...] -
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Innocense Unmodified
Emily Hughes
The Innocence Movement has participated in deconstructing the concept of “innocence” into “actual” and “legal” innocence. Because the Innocence Movement has focused on defendants who did not commit the actions underlying their convictions, courts, lawyers, and the larger society have come to believe that a person is wrongly convicted of a crime only if... »
Private Plea Bargains
Ric Simmons
This article analyzes the phenomenon of private criminal settlements; that is, settlements in which the victim or witness agrees not to report the perpetrator to the police in exchange for some consideration on the part of the perpetrator. The article first examines why these settlements occur and then determines whether they should be permitted. There... »
The Public Choice Problem in Corporate Law: Corporate Social Responsibility After Citizens United
David G. Yosifon
The Supreme Court recently held in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission (2010) that the First Amendment forbids Congress from restricting the political speech of corporations. While corporate theory did little to inform the Court’s thinking in Citizens United, this Article argues that the holding in Citizens United requires us to rethink corporate theory.... »
Here Is the Church, Where Is the Steeple: Foundation of Human Understanding v. United States
Matson Coxe
Advancements in technology and communication have brought remarkable changes to the way the world interacts: the socially frustrated—exhausted by traditional dating—seek relationships online; video chats replace phone calls; and videoconferencing allows businesses to conduct meetings virtually in-person from countries apart. In almost every realm of Americans’ personal and business lives, technology has expanded their... »
Dynamic Federalism and Consumer Financial Protection: How the Dodd-Frank Act Changes the Preemption Debate
Jared Elosta
In the fall of 2008, at the peak of the financial crisis, Oren Bar-Gill and Elizabeth Warren published a law review article proposing the creation of a new federal agency charged with protecting consumers from dangerous lending practices. Fewer than two years later, in response to the most serious challenge to the United States... »
North Carolina’s Arrested Development: Fourth Amendment Problems in the DNA Database Act of 2010
Lauren Hobson
Most Americans can probably hum a few bars of the theme song to one of television’s most successful franchises: Law & Order. Watching the ever-cynical Detective Briscoe investigate crimes alongside the good-looking Detective Logan made viewers root for police to catch New York City’s criminals. Sometimes, the “bad guys” won when the judge excluded... »
Regulation Without Agency: A Practical Response to Private Policing in United States v. Day
Cooper J Strickland
The popular image of the “mall cop” has created a comical caricature of private police, or security officers, for many individuals. Actor Kevin James exemplifies this image through his portrayal of a mall security guard in the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop in which his own self-doubt marginalizes his profession when he responds to... »
Diversity and Corporate Performance: A Review of the Psychological Literature
Jennifer K. Brooke & Tom R. Tyler
This Review examines two approaches to diversity management in the context of procedural justice theory: 1) maximizing the benefit of diversity in the workplace and 2) minimizing any potential harm. With regard to the former, this Review argues that the application of procedural justice theory will create conditions under which employees of all backgrounds... »
The Milieu of the Boardroom and the Precinct of Employment [Commentary]
Deborah A. DeMott
This Commentary explores differences between employer-employee relationships and service on a board of directors. Against this backdrop, this Commentary argues that the research findings surveyed by Brooke and Tyler, although specific to the employment context, may be salient in assessing the impact of diversity among members of a board of directors. »
Dangerous Categories: Narratives of Corporate Board Diversity
Lissa L. Broome, John M. Conley, and Kimberly D. Krawiec
In this article, we report the results of a series of interviews with corporate directors about racial, ethnic, and gender diversity on corporate boards. On the one hand, our respondents were clear and nearly uniform in their statements that board diversity was an important goal worth pursuing. Yet when asked to provide examples or... »
Corporate Board Gender Diversity and Stock Performance: The Competence Gap or Institutional Investor Bias?
Frank Dobbin & Jiwook Jung
Women now make up a sixth of corporate board members in the Fortune 500. Some scholars suggest that women board members boost financial performance, and thus stock price, by making boards more effective. Indeed, early studies showed a correlation between women on boards and both profits and stock price. But more rigorous studies have suggested that... »
Commentary: Puzzles About Corporate Boards and Board Diversity [Commentary]
Donald C. Langevoort
Those who seek greater gender or ethnic diversity on corporate boards of directors work under the self-imposed burden to show that board-level diversity adds value to the firm in some tangible way. In a perfect world, board diversity follows naturally from the fair distribution of talent and skill between the genders and among ethnicities... »
Board Diversity Revisited: New Rationale, Same Old Story?
Lisa M. Fairfax
Recently, board diversity advocates have relied on market- or economic-based rationales to convince corporate America to increase the number of women and people of color in the boardroom, in lieu of moral or social justifications. This shift away from moral or social justifications has been deliberate, and it stems from a belief that corporate... »
Diversity on Corporate Boards—Limits of the Business Case and the Connection Between Supporting Rationales and the Appropriate Response of the Law [Commentary]
Thomas Lee Hazen
Some observers suggest that diversity on corporate boards of directors will lead to new perspectives and hence better decision-making by the board. It would seem to follow that improved decision-making will lead to better corporate performance and thus presents a “business case” for increasing diversity on corporate boards. This essay explores the limits of... »
Justifying Board Diversity
James A. Fanto, Lawrence M. Solan, and John M. Darley
In this Article, we point out that advocates for board diversity in public companies feel pressure to justify it in terms of its contribution to shareholder value. This pressure is not surprising, insofar as the dominant social identity of boards, which itself is partly a creation of the discipline of finance, views shareholder value... »
The Mismatch Critique: Comment on Fanto, Solan, & Darley [Commentary]
Jerry Kang
James Fanto, Lawrence Solan, and John Darley build their paper, Justifying Board Diversity, on the basis of two essential claims—one legal, the other empirical. The legal claim is that existing law does not much constrain how corporate boards address the (lack of) diversity of their membership. The empirical claim is that board diversity doesn’t... »
The Diversity Double Standard
Sung Hui Kim
In Grutter and Gratz (2003), the twin cases that challenged the University of Michigan’s affirmative action programs, corporate America praised educational diversity as a compelling interest. But as is well known, they did so not on social justice grounds but on the empirical claim that “diversity is good for business.” In particular, education in... »
Different Strokes for Different Folks: A Different Standard is not Inherently a Double Standard [Commentary]
James E. Coleman, Jr.
During the Senate’s closed confirmation hearings on President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s nomination of George E. Wilson, President of General Motors, to be Secretary of Defense, a senator asked Wilson if he would be able to make decisions as Secretary of Defense that were adverse to General Motors’ interest. Wilson replied that he would, but... »
Showcasing Diversity
Patrick S. Shin & Mitu Gulati
Diversity initiatives are commonplace in today’s corporate America. Large and successful firms frequently tout their commitments to diversity, sometimes appointing women and racial minorities to highly visible posts, including seats on their boards of directors. Why would a profit-minded firm engage in such behavior? One frequently voiced explanation is that by creating such diversity,... »
Showcasing: The Positive Spin [Commentary]
Katharine T. Bartlett
What do companies signal when they showcase female and minority members of their corporate boards? Not necessarily more, say Patrick Shin and Mitu Gulati, than that they understand that diversity is a socially significant issue, and that they can attract members of the showcased individual’s minority group, against whom they are then probably disinclined... »