Nathaniel Shapo : Courses and Seminars
The Commerce Clause, Policymaking, and Financial Regulation in a Digital World
LAWS 43601
U.S. insurance regulation presents a unique opportunity to consider fundamental questions regarding the regulation of financial services in the modern marketplace. Insurance is unique among financial services, and all other major regulated industries, in that it has no primary federal regulator. Instead, because of a quirk in history and a controversial interplay between the Supreme Court and Congress, it continues to be regulated by the states in a unique "reverse preemption" regime established by the McCarran-Ferguson Act and subsequently reaffirmed in concept by Congress in Gramm-Leach-Bliley and Dodd-Frank. The system is cumbersome and inefficient and would seem particularly unsuited toward the modern market, particularly given the growing importance of international bodies and standards. Yet the insurance market survived the financial crisis relatively well. This paradox will be examined. Other topics will include basics on insurance regulation, including interesting debates regarding government control over financial products, such as price fixing and restrictions on efficient risk classification; and the national and international void left by the lack of a federal regulator, and the growing role of a non-governmental entity, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, in regulation of interstate commerce, and attendant Constitutional and policy issues. Throughout the seminar, we will view this market through the prism of larger questions: the origins, meaning, and purpose of the Commerce Clause; the proper role of the Supreme Court and Congress in policymaking and Constitutional interpretation; Congress's ability to regulate interstate commerce in an evolving financial services marketplace; and the effectiveness of hybrid federal-state approaches to setting and enforcing regulatory policy.
Grades will be based on short weekly papers (2 credits), with the option of doing a long research paper or adding a short research paper to the weekly papers (for three credits).
Meets the WP graduation requirement.
Attendance is required and particularly helpful participation may be a factor in the final grade.
Winter 2014
Nathaniel Shapo
