PUBLISHED:May 06, 2019

Cox makes annual list of 10 best articles in corporate and securities law – again

James D. Cox James D. Cox

James D. Cox, the Brainerd Currie Professor of Law, is the co-author of an article named one of the 10 best corporate and securities articles of 2018, the fifth time his scholarship has appeared on the annual list.

The article, “Delaware’s Retreat: Exploring Developing Fissures and Tectonic Shifts in Delaware Corporate Law42 Del. J. Corp. L. 323-389 (2018), which Cox published with Professor Randall S. Thomas of Vanderbilt Law School, analyzed four fundamental changes in the state’s approach to frequently litigated questions. The authors offer a novel explanation for these recent significant shifts in Delaware’s corporate jurisprudence, positing that doctrinal and environmental changes rendered earlier doctrines out of step with the forces that now surround mergers, acquisitions, and governance battles.

“Where other commentators have explained the tectonic shifts as response to political pressures fed by the dramatic rise in deal litigation, we provide what we believe are more fundamental causes for Delaware's retreat from its much celebrated 1980s-era holdings,” Cox said.

The article was selected from nearly 400 pieces published last year by Corporate Practice Commentator in its 25th annual poll of teachers in corporate and securities law. Articles by Cox and Thomas, who are frequent collaborators, also made the lists for 2005, 2006, and 2008, and an article co-authored by Cox, Fabrizio Ferri, Colleen Honigsberg, and Thomas was on the list for 2017. Duke Law faculty members Kimberly D. Krawiec, the Kathrine Robinson Everett Professor of Law, and Mitu Gulati have also been recognized in previous years.

Cox is a renowned scholar of corporate and securities law. He is the author of Financial Information, Accounting and the Law; Corporations and Other Business Organizations; Cases and Materials (with Eisenberg); Securities Regulations Cases and Materials (with Hillman & Langevoort); and the multi-volume treatise Cox and Hazen on Corporations. He has also published extensively in the areas of market regulation and corporate governance. At Duke, he teaches Business Associations, Securities Regulation, and other courses in corporate and securities law.