Revised Article 9, Securitization Transactions and the Bankruptcy Dynamic

Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code ( U.C.C. )1 is the law governing the creation, perfection, and enforcement of security interests in personal property. Originally enacted in 1960,2 Article 9 was substantially revised in 1972 in response to changes in commercial financing markets and practices. Since this last revision, there have been further changes, including technological advances, affecting commercial practice and custom. These changes have led the Permanent Editorial Board for the U.C.C. ( PEB ) to recommend to the American Law Institute ( ALI ) and the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws ( NCCUSL ) that Article 9, once again, be significantly revised. The stated reason for the current revisions is to ensure that Article 9 keeps pace with changes in commercial financing practices, thereby offering enhanced certainty to the commercial financing markets. Among the changes made to Article 9 are a collection of substantive revisions to the rules affecting a relatively new financing method, known as securitization

Credit Rating Agencies, Structured Securities, and the Way Out of the Abyss

The article examines the role of credit rating agencies (CRAs) in the evolving financial markets, and particularly in connection with the structured finance markets. The movement away from relationship-based lending based on trust, to the less personal capital markets, makes an objective assessment of creditworthiness essential to the structure of legitimate transactions, as well as to the credibility of investor decision-making. Yet, the financial crisis of 2008-2009 revealed that the CRAs seriously underestimated the risk of many complex securities that they rated. As CRAs have devoted a greater share of their resources to develop methods of rating these progressively more exotic securities, their influence over the market has grown exponentially. As a result, the issue of the accuracy of credit ratings and the accountability of CRAS is increasingly critical. The article reviews the voluntary reforms adopted by the largest CRAs, and calls for a more robust regulatory infrastructure and dramatic modification of CRA practices

The Apps for Justice Project: Employing Design Thinking to Narrow the Access to Justice Gap

The lack of available resources to make civil justice available to all, coupled with the fact that existing strategies fail to account for the research on cognitive capacity and other deployment challenges faced by the poor, explain in large part why a high percentage of low-income individuals facing legal problems fail to take action to respond to their legal problems. Such a failure to respond in a timely fashion to a nascent legal problem can lead to an escalation of the initial problem and the emergence of new ones. The access-to-justice community has begun to respond to this intensifying crisis in ever-more creative and innovative ways. Recent years have seen an expanding array of technology and non-technology-based tools designed with the purpose of helping people who cannot afford market-rate lawyers. Such innovations have recently led to adjustments in funding for legal aid programs and in advancements in self-help and assisted-self-help tools. These advancements include on-line client intake systems, self-help triage programs, legal diagnostic tools, robot lawyer chat systems, and legal expert system applications. These tools have the potential to be scaled to serve millions more people and make possible a system that provides effective legal help to everyone who needs it, when they need it, and in a form they can use. The Apps for Justice Project has focused on the development of one such solution to the access-to-justice crisis. Launched in 2016 and funded with a grant from the Maine Economic Improvement Fund, Apps for Justice has developed practical, technology-based tools (applications, or apps) that enable low- and moderate-income residents to address their legal and law-related problems. The apps, written at a fourth grade reading level to best serve the widest audience, use plain language rather than legal jargon. Additionally, drawing on the literature from distance education, public health, behavioral economics, experimental psychology, cognitive psychology, and sociology, each app includes links to positive self-affirmation exercises and employs psychologically affirming language. This article describes both the evolution and development process of this project

Inhibition of the NF-KB Signaling Pathway and Its Effects on Apoptosis and Cancer

The Rel/NF-kB family of inducible transcription factors are evolutionarily conserved structurally and functionally, from insects to humans. They are ubiquitously expressed in a number of mature cell types, playing a pivotal role regulating cell growth, differentiation and apoptosis. Under normal circumstances, the proliferation of new cells is tightly regulated, as is the programmed lifespan of most cells, occasionally however cells loose their responsiveness to growth control mechanisms, resulting in a tumor or neoplasm. Sustained or chronic inflammation has been linked to a number of pathological conditions that destroy tissue and facilitate neoplastic growth. NF-kB in part mediates the opposing signals of cell survival and cell death, associated with this response. We hypothesized that inhibition of NF-kB would inhibit tumor cell growth. A number of anti-neoplastic drugs like some pro-inflammatory cytokines can activate both the cellular apoptotic and pro-survival (via NF-kB) pathways. We demonstrate, in vitro, that the use of Nitric Oxide mitigates NF-kB activation and induces program cell death, when administered as an adjuvant with this subset of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Secondly, several front-line anti-cancer drugs activate NF-kB as a result of their mode of action, resulting in the survival of a resistant population of tumor cells. In order to abrogate this beneficial activity for the tumor cell we explore, both in vitro and in vivo, the use of Nitric Oxide to inhibit NF-kB, augmenting the efficacy of the anti-neoplastic drugs. Thirdly, we identify that the intracellular signaling kinase, Inositol Hexkisphosphate Kinase2 (IHPK2) , binds to a key component in the NF-kB signaling pathway, inhibiting NF-kB activity promoting apoptosis in tumor cells. Lastly, an in depth study investigating the major initiator of pro-inflammatory signaling during bacterial infection of cells by Salmonela sp. was in fact due to recognition of the bacterial protein flagellin by the cell surface receptor Toll-like recepto

The Consumer Bankruptcy Fee Study: Final Report

The Consumer Fee Study’s primary objective is to identify and monetize these costs of bankruptcy access through the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data gathered from court dockets and from professionals working within the bankruptcy system. We began the quantitative section with the hypothesis that following BAPCPA’s enactment, the cost of accessing the consumer bankruptcy system increased. We set out to determine the degree of increased costs, as well as to identify the specific policies and practices affecting these costs. Additionally, we endeavored to evaluate, with specificity, how diverse local procedures and guidelines impact the system’s processes and outcomes. Our focus throughout the Study was on the consumer bankruptcy system and its principal stakeholders. Until now, empirical study of BAPCPA’s impact has focused primarily on the system’s demand side, gathering and analyzing financial and sociological data with respect to debtor households. The effect of BAPCPA on debtors, however, cannot be fully assessed without an examination of the architecture that surrounds a consumer’s decision to file, coupled with an account of the complexity of factors that inform and influence the consumer’s experience in the bankruptcy system. This Study addresses issues related to the institutional framework of consumer bankruptcy by not only measuring and monetizing the cost of access, but by also examining the incentives and constraints imposed by the system

The Consumer Bankruptcy Fee Study: Final Report

The Consumer Fee Study’s primary objective is to identify and monetize these costs of bankruptcy access through the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data gathered from court dockets and from professionals working within the bankruptcy system. We began the quantitative section with the hypothesis that following BAPCPA’s enactment, the cost of accessing the consumer bankruptcy system increased. We set out to determine the degree of increased costs, as well as to identify the specific policies and practices affecting these costs. Additionally, we endeavored to evaluate, with specificity, how diverse local procedures and guidelines impact the system’s processes and outcomes. Our focus throughout the Study was on the consumer bankruptcy system and its principal stakeholders. Until now, empirical study of BAPCPA’s impact has focused primarily on the system’s demand side, gathering and analyzing financial and sociological data with respect to debtor households. The effect of BAPCPA on debtors, however, cannot be fully assessed without an examination of the architecture that surrounds a consumer’s decision to file, coupled with an account of the complexity of factors that inform and influence the consumer’s experience in the bankruptcy system. This Study addresses issues related to the institutional framework of consumer bankruptcy by not only measuring and monetizing the cost of access, but by also examining the incentives and constraints imposed by the system

The Impact of Revised Article 9

Under Revised Article 9, secured creditors are granted greater rights than they had under former Article 9. We now have a secured credit system whereby secured creditors can more easily encumber a greater number of types of assets and can securitize more types of assets with greater certainty. These revisions were justified on the grounds of efficiency, although the impact of these revisions was not empirically proven. This article sets forth a research protocol for the study of Revised Article 9\u27s impact on the credit markets