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The article presents developments on accounting in the U.S. in 2018. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued 21 Accounting Standards Updates (ASUs) to its Accounting Standards Codification during the year. The FASB launched a standard addressing the concerns of stakeholders about the costs and complexity of complying with the transition provisions of its lease requirements.

In 2014, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws approved a set of amendments to the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act. Among other changes, the amendments renamed the act the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act. In this paper, the reporter for the committee that drafted the amendments describes the amendment project and discusses the changes that were made to the act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Codification of the economic substance doctrine in 2010 ushered in a new phase in the debate regarding the meaning and reach of the doctrine. The main statutory hint as to the intended scope of the codified economic substance doctrine is ambiguous, providing, "The determination of whether the economic substance doctrine is relevant to a transaction shall be made in the same manner as if this subsection had never been enacted." This Article argues that this language should be read in light of the codification history, which stretches back for over ten years before enactment. This history suggests that the relevance provision is primarily about maintaining the precodification balance of decision making between tax agencies and courts. The history also indicates that the provision reflects congressional concurrence in the precodification trajectory of the doctrine, particularly in terms of the types of transactions that were being litigated. The movement from the common law to codified statute brought with it the potential application of a complex web of authority regarding interactions between tax agencies and courts in their administration, enforcement, and interpretation of the Code. Included in that web is the general ability of the tax agencies to obtain strong deference from the courts as to the agencies' authoritative, reasonable interpretations of textual ambiguities. The economic substance legislative history acknowledges the general interpretive authority of the tax agencies but does not suggest a specific path for reconciling that authority with the requirement that development of the doctrine continue "in the same manner" as under the common law. This Article proposes that the various strands in the legislative history can be reconciled by interpreting the relevance provision as adding two directions to tax agencies and courts: (1) the statute does not apply to transactions that are clearly consistent with the form and purpose of claimed tax benefits and (2) the courts have final discretion over whether a specific, litigated transaction ultimately fails the requirements of the economic substance doctrine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the idea of debt-equity swaps in the United States. Codification of the common law equity-for-debt exception; Application of the Exchange Agreement; Use of the common law equity-for-debt exception by corporate debtors in financial difficulty.

Focuses on the international and domestic codification of commercial law in the United States. Significance of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law to commercial law codification; Revision of the domestic Uniform Commercial Code; Purpose of commercial codification.

Responses to the article 'Codified Standard--Safe Harbor or Uncharted Reef?' by E. Norman Veasey and William E. Manning published in the April 1980 issue of 'The Business Lawyer' journal. Rejection of the section 35 of the 'Model Business Corporation Act'; Responsibility of the fiduciary for corporate losses; Role of corporate lawyer and investment bankers as nonmanagement directors.

Focuses on the codification of the Federal Securities Laws in the United States. List of definition of terms of the Code; Concept of company registration; Concerns on the effect of the Code on small companies.

Focuses on the draft status of Federal Securities Codification in the United States. Eligibility of codification for abortion under the laws; Centrality of Section 5 of the Securities Act; Integration of registration and collateral provisions of the '33 and '34 acts.

Focuses on the prohibitions of the Rule 10b-5 in California. Factors causing the proliferation of the rule's litigation; Provisions of the Securities and Exchange Act; Conduction of a conference by the Committee on Federal Regulation of Securities on the codification of the federal securities law.

Comments on the process of codifying administrative procedures under securities laws in the United States. Accommodation of the purpose of statute; Rights of the US Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct administrative hearings; Need to define standards of administrative law of the commission.

Focuses on the need of incorporating the Investment Company Act of 1940 in the codification process of securities laws in the United States. Dependence of the statute on the effectiveness of US Securities and Exchange Commission actions; Differences of the Act with disclosure statutes; Cost of including the 1940 act in a codification program.

Focuses on the need of codification of securities regulation of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Sophistication of rules on registration of companies; Necessity of objective perspective of the problem; Outline of the code.

Focuses on the inevitability of codification of securities laws in the United States. Limitation in the scope of federal laws on securities and transactions; Enhancement of protection afforded by securities laws; Consideration of the philosophy of maximum coverage.

Comments on articles concerning the law in the U.S., featured in the January 1977 issue of the 'American Bar Association Journal.' Flaws in the arguments concerning prudence and trust investment law; Oppositions on S. 1, a bill to codify, revise and reform the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure; Experiences with the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps.

Focuses on the debate on the codification of securities laws into a single body of legislation in the United States. Extent of the revision of laws; Purpose of codification; Identification of appropriate scope of codification.