Theodore P. Seto

Theodore P. Seto, Professor of Law, Hon. Frederick J. Lower, Jr. Chair

Professor of Law
Hon. Frederick J. Lower, Jr. Chair

Courses Taught

Property Law
Income Taxation
Corporate Taxation
Partnership Taxation
International Taxation
Tax Policy
Law and Economics

Education

BA, magna cum laude, Harvard University, Phi Beta Kappa
JD, magna cum laude, Harvard University

Background

While in law school, Theodore Seto served as executive editor of the Harvard Law Review. Upon graduation, he clerked for Judge Walter Mansfield on the Second Circuit. He then practiced for 14 years as a civil litigator and tax attorney with the firms of Foley, Hoag & Eliot (Now Foley Hoag) in Boston and Drinker Biddle & Reath (now Faegre Drinker) in Philadelphia before joining the Loyola faculty in 1991. His current research interests include tax theory, ethics, and epistemology.

Selected Scholarship

Modeling the Welfare Effects of Advertising: Preference-Shifting Deadweight Loss, 75 Tax L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2022)
Modeling Changes in U.S. International Tax Rules, Tax Notes, April 15, 2019
Does the Income Tax Cause Parents to Spend Too Much Time With Their Children?: Unpacking Mirrlees, 36 Va. Tax Rev. 55 (2017)
A Forced Labour Theory of Property and Taxation, in The Philosophy Of Tax Law (Oxford, 2016).
FEDERAL INCOME TAXATION: CASES, PROBLEMS AND MATERIALS (West Academic Publishing 2012) and Teachers Manual (West Academic Publishing 2013)
Deconstructing the Tiger Mother, 17 UCLA ASIAN PAC. AM. L.J. 51 (Fall, 2011 / Spring, 2012)
Where Do Partners Come From?, 62 J. LEGAL EDUC. 242 (2012)
Cost-Effective Recruiting: New Data, 2 BLOOMBERG LAW REPORTS – LAW FIRM MANAGEMENT 9 (October 17, 2011)
Becoming a National Law Firm Partner: New Data, 2 BLOOMBERG LAW REPORTS – STUDENT EDITION 3 (September 6, 2011)
Keeping Tax-Subsidized Corporate Money Out of Politics, 127 TAX NOTES 1476 (June 28, 2010)
The Problem With Bonus Depreciation, 127 TAX NOTES 782 (February 8, 2010)
Is Book-Burning Bad? in RIGHTS, CITIZENSHIP AND TORTURE: PERSPECTIVES ON EVIL, LAW AND THE STATE (John T. Parry & Welat Zeydanlıoğlu eds., Interdisciplinary Press 2009)
The Unintended Tax Advantages of Gay Marriage, Loyola-LA Legal Studies Paper No. 2005-33, 65 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1529 (2008)
Understanding the U.S. News Law School Rankings, 60 SMU Law Review 493 (2007)
Inside Zarin, 59 SMU Law Review 1761 (2006)
Tax and Disability: Ability to Pay and the Taxation of Difference, 154 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 1053 (2006) (with Sande Buhai)
Originalism vs. Precedent: An Evolutionary Perspective, 38 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 2001 (2005)
Reframing Evil in Evolutionary and Game Theoretic Terms, in Understanding Evil: An Interdisciplinary Approach19-32 (Sönser Breen, ed. 2003)
The Morality of Terrorism, 35 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 1227 (2002)
Intergenerational Decision Making: An Evolutionary Perspective, 35 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 235 (2001)
Drafting a Federal Balanced Budget Amendment That Does What It Is Supposed to Do (And No More), 106 Yale Law Journal 1449 (1997)
The Function of the Discharge of Indebtedness Doctrine: Complete Accounting in the Federal Income Tax System, 51 Tax Law Review 199 (1997).