November 21, 2018
The past decade has brought multiple significant decisions in insider trading law, but has not substantially clarified the line between legal and illegal trading. In this article, we address how some degree of this lack of clarity can be traced to certain institutional dynamics at play in the courts issuing the relevant decisions. In particular, we look at both the Second Circuit’s uniquely strong preference for avoiding en banc review and the Supreme Court’s general preference for narrow decisions, and assess the ways in which these dynamics have shaped and may continue to shape insider trading jurisprudence.