Principal (commercial law)

About: Principal (commercial law) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1579 publications have been published within this topic receiving 35379 citations. The topic is also known as: Principal (commercial law).

Out of the Principal's Office and Into the Courtroom: How Should California Approach Criminal Remedies for School Bullying

Abstract: INTRODUCTION School bullying is a hot-button issue. A recent spate of highprofile teen \"bullycides\" '-suicides by students who are apparently driven to kill themselves in response to relentless bullying by their peers-has spawned a nationwide outpouring of outrage and 2 sympathy, accompanied by vocal demands for schools and law enforcement to \"get tough\" on bullies.3 Books and articles about the dangers of bullying have proliferated in the popular press, decrying

Firm’s tax evasion in a principal-agent model with self-protection

Abstract: Gatekeepers have an increasing role in taxation and regulation. Whereas burdening them with legal liability for misconducts that benefit those who resort to their services actually discourages wrongdoings—as will be clarified in the article—an alienation effect can also arise. The gatekeeper might become more interested in covering up the illegal behavior. This article studies the problem with respect to tax evasion by firms in a principal-agent framework. It highlights the role of legal rules pertaining to liability for tax evasion in shaping the choices of the parties, as concealment costs vary according to whether the risk-neutral principal or the riskaverse agent is held responsible when tax evasion is detected. The main result of the analysis is that there is a simple ex post test that can be carried out to infer whether harnessing the agent was socially beneficial.

The Uniform Law on International Sale of Goods: A Constructive Critique

Abstract: In no other major branch of law is there more uniformity among the principal legal systems of the world than in the law of international sales. Contract law relating to documentary transactions, the law of carriage of goods by sea, rail, and air, the law of marine insurance, and the law of bank credits and acceptances, are basically the same in their general character-so far as international sales are concerned-in the so-called "common law" and "civil law" systems as well as in the legal systems of the centrally planned economies of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and China. The reasons for this are not hard to find. On the one hand, the merchants, carriers, underwriters, and bankers of the world who engage in international sales transactions have had centuries of experience in establishing common practices and common norms. Moreover, they continually renew their common traditions through negotiation of contracts, through arbitration of disputes, and through the establishment of rules by trade associations. On the other hand, lawyers and lawmakers of many countries have also responded, over the centuries, to the need for uniformity in the law of international sales, and have helped to develop such universal legal institutions as the c.i.f. contract, the bill of lading, the marine insurance policy and certificate, the bill of exchange and letter of credit. Commercial codes of France, Germany, Italy, the Scandinavian countries, the United States, and other countries, and general commercial statutes like the British Sale of Goods Act, are themselves based partly upon the international "law merchant," and national courts have received international commercial law through the application of such codes and statutes as well as through interpretation of international sales contracts. Uniformity has also been bolstered by international conventions such as the Brussels Convention on Carriage of Goods by Sea and others, as well as by rules adopted at international conferences, such as the I932 WarsawOxford Rules for CIF Contracts, and by comprehensive contract conditions worked out for various types of exports by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Finally, state trading agencies of all countries, including countries of centrally planned economy, have to a large extent adapted themselves to traditional international commercial-law institutions; indeed, even in trade with each other, the countries of centrally planned economy employ contract techniques and contract

A Revised Prospectus for a Third Restatement of Agency

Abstract: The article is based on a prospectus submitted to the American Law Institute proposing a new Restatement of Agency, to succeed Restatement (Second) of Agency, which was completed in 1958. Like the prospectus, the article identifies a number of practical and theoretical respects in which Restatement (Second) has been overtaken by subsequent developments. The article begins by distinguishing the definition of agency within legal doctrine from the meanings ascribed to agency in other disciplines, such as economics. The article then sketches the key elements of doctrine within the common law of agency and illustrates contemporary controversies concerning their application. Agency is intellectually distinctive within the law because it focuses on relationships in which one person (the agent), one way or another, is in a position to act with consequences for another person (the principal). Agency doctrine looks inward, to the relationship between the agent and the principal, as well as outward, to the consequences for the agent and principal of the agent's interactions with third parties. The outward looking consequences of agency encompass contracts entered into by the agent as well as the agent's wrongful acts. Much in agency turns on the scope or range of the agent's relationship with the principal. Agency doctrine reaches broadly, defining the legal consequences of choosing to act through another person in lieu of oneself. In a contemporary context, many principals as well as many agents are organizations, themselves networks or chains of agency relationships. A contemporary Restatement should reflect this reality, as well as provide an intellectual framework and a set of doctrinal formulations that enable courts, legal practitioners, and scholars to analyze ongoing and future developments.