Chancellor William B. Chandler, III of the Delaware Chancery Court has co-authored with one of his former law clerks, a law review article that replies to some critics of Delaware’s corporate law. The article is part of a series of law review articles just published in The University of Illinois Law Review, Volume 2009, Number 1. Hat tip to Professor Larry Ribstein who organized the symposium which was the genesis of the articles and who contributed his own article to the same publication that also responds to the same critics from his perspective as one of the nation’s leading experts on LLCs and other alternative entities. The good professor’s post today entitled "The Mystery of Delaware’s Success", here, provides an overview and background of the series of articles in the current issue of the law review.
An excerpt from the introduction to the Chancellor’s article follows:
… Chandler and Rickey examine the data provided by Carney and Shepherd and conclude that Delaware’s success is not such a mystery. First, they compare appeal and reversal rates of other jurisdictions with those of Delaware. Their findings do not support Carney and Shepherd’s conclusion that Delaware’s reversal rate is “relatively” high. Next, they consider several of Carney and Shepherd’s qualitative claims of the Model Act’s doctrinal superiority and demonstrate that the Model Act becomes much less certain when applied in realworld cases. Finally, they address Carney and Shepherd’s assertion that Delaware law leads to unnecessary cost and delay in litigation and show that this conclusion is based upon unreliable and incomplete data.
The list of the articles and authors in the current issue of the law review include:
The Mystery of Delaware Law’s Continuing Success, William J. Carney and George B. ShepherdManufacturing Mystery: A Response To Professors Carney and Shepherd’s "The Mystery of Delaware Law’s Continuing Success", William B. Chandler III and Anthony A. Rickey
The Uncorporation and Corporate Indeterminacy, Larry E. Ribstein
Delaware’s Disclosure: Moving the Line of Federal-State Corporate Regulation, Robert B. Thompson
Bankruptcy Bondage, Margaret Howard
Unconscious Bias and the Limits of Director Independence, Anthony Page