Abstract
Part I of this Article will discuss the current framework for oversight of the nonprofit sector, and why this framework has been problematic in achieving effective regulatory oversight of nonprofit organizations. This Part will first address the oversight role of state officials, such as the attorneys general, and the challenges associated with it. This Part will then examine the significant number of challenges the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) faces in overseeing tax-exempt organizations, and why the IRS may not the best choice for overcoming them. This Part will conclude in an analysis of the current framework for legal standing by private parties looking to enforce nonprofit law, and why the bases for legal standing outlined in the Statute of Charitable Uses of 1601 may no longer be true today. Part II will provide a comparative analysis of some self-regulatory initiatives in China and Vietnam’s nonprofit sectors. Specifically, it will discuss what the United States can learn from these two regulatory systems when developing its own nonprofit law reforms. Finally, Part III will discuss how the legal right to challenge a specific act of a nonprofit entity could resemble a qui tam (whistleblower) action, and why such an action might be a salient starting point in expanding the public’s role in proactive investigations of nonprofit organizations. This Part will then propose that an analog of the bounty program from the Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) Act of 2002 and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection (Dodd-Frank) Act of 2010 could be used to incentivize relators to challenge actions of nonprofit entities while satisfying the doctrines of public benefit and cy pres found in charitable trust law. In addition, it will address some preliminary objections to this proposal.
Recommended Citation
Nangia, Phaguni
(2025)
"Revisiting Oversight Challenges in the Nonprofit Sector: Allowing Private Parties Legal Standing,"
Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law: Vol. 15:
Iss.
2, Article 8.
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndjicl/vol15/iss2/8