Featured Articles

Brazil, China, Sugar, Ethanol and Politics

Larry Catá Backer
September 05, 2008 01:56

It is with some interest that I note the recent trade mission sent by Brazil to China. The mission was potentially important enough to earn a notice by petroleum interests. See China wants Brazilian technology in ethanol, Brazil-Arab News Agency, July 8, 2008 (Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum)....

Recent Articles

Does a Board of Directors Have a Fiduaciary Duty to Honor Contracts Greater than Its Duty to Its Shareholders

Larry Catá Backer
October 06, 2008 15:29

The current financial crisis is likely to produce new law in a number of areas. One of the more interesting in these legal eddies may remake the understanding of fiduciary duty in the United States. That is certainly what might happen if Citigroup Inc. has its way in its battle with Wells Fargo...

(Un?)Intended Regulatory Consequences of the Financial Crisis: Multinational Corporations and Sovereign Wealth Funds

Larry Catá Backer
October 06, 2008 14:42

Anyone who does not want to see what is lofty in a man looks that much more keenly for what is low in him and mere foreground--and thus betrays himself.Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil: A Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future (Walter Kaufmann, trans., New York: Vintage Books, 1966)...

Monkey See, Monkey Do: The European Union and the Financial Crisis

Larry Catá Backer
October 02, 2008 21:31

As the United States lurches toward a "solution" to its financial crises, it merits a moment to remember that the crisis is beginning to affect Europe as well. Like the Americans, the Europeans appear prepared to throw money at the problem--that is to throw money at those responsible for the...

The Financial Crisis--A Comment on Lucien Bebchuk and Our Boom Days for Academic Theorizing

Larry Catá Backer
September 26, 2008 00:53

The present financial crisis has gotten everyone energized--from the political, to the media to the economic sectors--everyone seems to believe that this is the point of instability in which might be seized for advantage at home or abroad. Academics too sense the upside potential of participating...

Jiyo to Hanei no Ko: Japan's New Prime Minister Taro Aso

Larry Catá Backer
September 25, 2008 15:01

The conservative turn in Japanese politics continues unabated. In a mockery of the American obsession with youth, and the American media's criticism of one of the current crop of presidential contenders for having survived to seventy two, sixty eight year old Taro Aso was elevated to the post of...

Theocratic Constitutionalism Part II: From Constitution to Constitutionalism

Larry Catá Backer
September 21, 2008 16:55

The following is a version of a portion of an article that will be appearing as Backer, Larry Catá, Theocratic Constitutionalism: An Introduction to a New Global Legal Ordering(July 28, 2008). Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2008.FROM CONSTITUTION TO CONSTITUTIONALISM: A ...

AIG and American Corporatist Socialism

Larry Catá Backer
September 20, 2008 13:56

By now the dust has settled on the "salvation" of the corporation American International Group, AIG, the multinational insurance giant through the last minute intervention of the American government, which generously opened its coffers for the benefit of this private multinational entity.There has...

Corporate Global Citizenship

Larry Catá Backer
September 20, 2008 13:52

I recently had the privilege of reading an advance copy of a working paper written by Grahame Thompson, to appear as a Copenhagen Business School Working Paper. The following are some observations generated from the insights developed in that paper.The convergence of public and private law has...

From Cuba to the United States: Santería and the Construction of Religious Liberty in the United States, the Untold Story

Larry Catá Backer
September 18, 2008 12:57

This is the untold story of the way in which the religion of Cuban slaves, forged within the crucible of Spanish intiolerance and cultural marginalization in the homeland, played a critical role in the evolution of the protection of religious liberty in the United States. It is the story of...