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Friday, August 6, 2010

Disimply, Disimplicate

This below from an online source.

Chapman notes that Grice was reluctant to work on 'disimplicature', but he did coin the word, and tried to generalise some principles on 'disimplicature' (or entail-dropping for short). So it's not surprising that lawyers, rather than logicians, had been talking about the simpler 'disimply'. So the question is, in which way disimply and disimplicate differ? (A search on disimplicature in the annals of the Grice Club may help)

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Professor Joel Seligman has written a thoughtful Comment 1 on my recent article, Disimplying Private Rights of Action Under the Federal Securities Laws: The Commission's Authority ("Disimplying"). 2 The thesis of Disimplying is that the Securities and Exchange Commission can amend judicially implied Rule 10b-5 private rights of action. The debate over securities litigation reform is therefore not Congress's exclusive province, because the Commission can also shape private Rule 10b-5 rights of action. Professor Seligman has "no quarrel" with this argument. 3

Although Professor Seligman and I agree on the Commission's authority to disimply, 4 we part company on the normative implications of that authority. Professor Seligman reviews testimony presented in recent congressional hearings 5 and concludes that "[i]f there is a case for significant changes in the federal securities class action law, it simply has not been presented to date." 6 He further concludes that courts already have the tools necessary to address the threat of abusive litigation and that, despite a barrage of criticism, "the merits do matter" in settling securities fraud actions. 7

The data are not, however, as settled as Professor Seligman suggests, and courts deny that they are the appropriate forum for resolution of the securities class action policy debate. 8 While Professor Seligman properly criticizes extreme claims voiced by critics of securities class actions, he incorrectly concludes that the available evidence provides neither cause for further inquiry nor reason to entertain proposals for reform.

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