Veronica Root Martinez, Complex Compliance Investigations, 120 Colum. L. Rev. 249 (2020)
Whether it is a financial institution like Wells Fargo, an automotive company like General Motors, a transportation company like Uber, or a religious organization like the Catholic Church, failing to properly prevent, detect, investigate, and remediate misconduct within an organization's ranks can have devastating results. The importance of the compliance function is accepted within corporations, but the reality is that all types of organizations--private or public--must ensure their members comply with legal and regulatory mandates, industry standards, and internal norms and expectations. They must police thousands of members' compliance with hundreds of laws. And when compliance failures occur at these complex organizations they can be significant and widespread in both scope and associated harms. Yet, careful examination and assessment reveals that many of the most significant and damning scandals occurring within organizations of late were entirely avoidable. Research within the field of corporate governance focuses on how firms are structured because those structures can result in better decisionmaking within the firm. Structure refers to the manner of separating the work in an organization into subunits and dividing the control of and responsibilities for the work. The field of compliance relies heavily on these insights from corporate governance, which has led to a focus on what organizational structures will lead to compliance programs likely to prevent and detect misconduct within firms. When it comes time to investigate potential incidents of misconduct and determine whether they are material events, however, complex organizations must go beyond issues related to the best manner in which to structure a compliance program. Instead, this Article argues that firms must focus on process-based reforms--or the actions, practices, and routines firms employ to communicate and analyze information--that will bolster a firm's "Complex Compliance Investigations" and act as a safety net when compliance programs fail to detect or appropriately respond to misconduct within firms.
Nadia N. Sawicki, The Conscience Defense to Malpractice, 108 Calif. L. Rev. 1255 (2020)
This Article presents the first comprehensive overview of the procedural protections established by state conscience laws in the reproductive health care context. The novel research findings in this Article raise awareness of the previously unrecognized breadth of protections established by conscience laws. These findings also challenge the assumption that tort law is available to remedy harms suffered by patients who are injured by a conscience-based denial of information or treatment, even when that denial violates the standard of care. Although the scope of this study was limited to conscience laws relating to reproductive care, it prompts further academic inquiry and debate about the appropriate scope of conscience protections in all health care contexts. The data and discussion in this Article should motivate policy-makers to consider how best to balance providers' rights of conscience against the state's interest in ensuring that patients, employers, and others who suffer harm as a result of a provider's exercise of conscience rights are not denied legal remedies for those harms.
Paul J. Larkin & Doug Badger, The First General Federal Vaccination Requirement: The OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard for COVID-19 Vaccinations, 6 Admin. L. Rev. Accord 365 (2022)
The Biden Administration has tried to force a federal safety law designed to protect against hazards that arise only in the workplace to serve double [*412] duty as a basis for compelling tens of millions of people to submit to a vaccine that they might not want. The legal problem the Administration faces is that the OSH Act does not grant the Labor Secretary that authority. The political problem that the President faces is that he does not want to ask Congress to adopt the first-ever general federal vaccination requirement. President Biden is facing many challenges in Congress and elsewhere and understandably is reluctant to take on another one. But if he wants to impose a vaccine mandate, he has no other option.
