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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Pharma Barons: Corporate Law's Dangerous New Race To The Bottom In The Pharmaceutical Industry, Eugene Mccarthy
The Pharma Barons: Corporate Law's Dangerous New Race To The Bottom In The Pharmaceutical Industry, Eugene Mccarthy
Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review
In this Article, I argue that drug companies have created a highly profitable but dangerous business model by employing the same legal tactics as the nineteenth-century “robber barons,” the group of financiers who orchestrated corporate law’s infamous race to the bottom. Like these historical financiers, drug company executives have captured the legal apparatus and regulatory bodies that oversee them. In so doing, they have transformed the law from a system of governance into a set of enabling doctrines. The pharmaceutical industry has turned legislation intended to protect the public into a legal justification for marketing ineffective and unsafe prescription drugs. …
Medicine As A Public Calling, Nicholas Bagley
Medicine As A Public Calling, Nicholas Bagley
Michigan Law Review
The debate over how to tame private medical spending tends to pit advocates of government-provided insurance—a single-payer scheme—against those who would prefer to harness market forces to hold down costs. When it is mentioned at all, the possibility of regulating the medical industry as a public utility is brusquely dismissed as anathema to the American regulatory tradition. This dismissiveness, however, rests on a failure to appreciate just how deeply the public utility model shaped health law in the twentieth century— and how it continues to shape health law today. Closer economic regulation of the medical industry may or may not …
Can Self-Regulation Work? Lessons From The Private Security And Military Industry, Daphné Richemond-Barak Phd
Can Self-Regulation Work? Lessons From The Private Security And Military Industry, Daphné Richemond-Barak Phd
Michigan Journal of International Law
The private security and military industry has undergone a dramatic shift over the past decade—from an under-regulated sphere of activity to one in which an array of self-regulatory schemes has emerged. These regulatory initiatives took shape as states, security companies, and the broader public recognized the need to clarify the legal framework applicable to private security and military companies. Private contractors, once regarded as mercenaries, have over the past two decades played an increasingly central role in support of modern militaries. Reasons for this phenomenon range from budgetary policy to the need for specialized expertise most readily available in the …
Market Power In Power Markets: The Filed-Rate Doctrine And Competition In Electricity, Sandeep Vaheesan
Market Power In Power Markets: The Filed-Rate Doctrine And Competition In Electricity, Sandeep Vaheesan
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
State and federal initiatives have opened the American electric power industry to competition over the past four decades. Although the process has not occurred uniformly across the country, wholesale electricity markets exist everywhere today. Independent power producers can construct generation facilities and sell their output to utilities and industrial customers through bilateral contracts. In many regions, centralized power markets now facilitate the sale of billions of dollars in electricity annually through auctions. Although market forces have replaced direct price regulation in electricity, antitrust enforcement has not expanded its role commensurately. A lack of competition has been a serious problem in …
Incubator Cities: Tomorrow's Economy, Yesterday's Start-Ups, Abraham J.B. Cable
Incubator Cities: Tomorrow's Economy, Yesterday's Start-Ups, Abraham J.B. Cable
Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review
Venture development funds (“VDFs”) are products of state and local government law that use public funds to invest in local start-ups, in the hope that these companies will then attract venture capital investment. Existing analysis by legal scholars largely assumes that establishing a private venture capital market is essential to encouraging entrepreneurship. This article challenges that assumption. It argues that VDFs and other policies focused on encouraging venture capital are outmoded and inconsistent with the ultimate economic development goals of state and local governments. In many industries, entrepreneurs can now get by with less capital because the cost of developing …
Antitrust Rulemaking As A Solution To Abuse On The Standard-Setting Process, Adam Speegle
Antitrust Rulemaking As A Solution To Abuse On The Standard-Setting Process, Adam Speegle
Michigan Law Review
While many recognize the critical role that technology plays in modern life, few appreciate the role that standards play in contributing to its success. Devices as prevalent as the modern laptop computer for example, may be governed by over 500 interoperability standards, regulating everything from the USB drive to the memory chip. To facilitate adoption of such standards, firms are increasingly turning to standard-setting organizations. These organizations consist of members of an industry who agree to abide by the organization's bylaws, which typically regard topics such as patent disclosure and reasonable licensing. Problems arise, however, when members violate these bylaws …
Creating A Plug-In Electric Vehicle Industry Cluster In Michigan: Prospects And Policy Options, Thomas P. Lyon, Russell A. Baruffi Jr.
Creating A Plug-In Electric Vehicle Industry Cluster In Michigan: Prospects And Policy Options, Thomas P. Lyon, Russell A. Baruffi Jr.
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
This Article seeks to examine how policy can be used strategically to foster the development of a plug-in electric vehicle ("PEV") industry cluster in Michigan. The tendency for certain industries to localize in particular regions has captured the interest of much economic research and policy discussion in recent years. The trend toward the clustering of new industries has stayed strong despite the acceleration of globalization. Attention to clusters has proven to be an enduring theme in economic development circles for nearly thirty years. Clusters generate synergies that make industrial activity greater than the sum of contributions by individual players. In …
Economics And The Design Of Patent Systems, Robert M. Hunt
Economics And The Design Of Patent Systems, Robert M. Hunt
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
I use intuition derived from several of my research papers to make three points. First, in the absence of a common law balancing test, application of uniform patentability criteria favors some industries over others. Policymakers must decide the optimal tradeoff across industries. Second, if patent rights are not closely related to the underlying inventions, more patenting may reduce R&D in industries that are both R&D and patent intensive. Third, the U.S. private innovation system has become far more decentralized than it was a generation ago. It is reasonable to inquire whether a patent system that worked well in an era …
The Myth Of Inherent And Inevitable Industry Differences: Diversity As Artifact In The Quest For Patent Reforms, Robert A. Armitage
The Myth Of Inherent And Inevitable Industry Differences: Diversity As Artifact In The Quest For Patent Reforms, Robert A. Armitage
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
The University of Michigan Law School hosted a two-day conference entitled "Patents and Diversity in Innovation." The morning of the first day featured a panel devoted to "industry differences." This panel took up the task of dealing with the following questions: How has diversification of innovation and the expansion of patentable subject matter affected patent practice? How do markets for technology vary from sector to sector? And how do they reflect or influence patent practice? To what extent are business practices and competitive markets shaped by the nature of the technology, product, or service?[...] A conference titled "Patents and Diversity" …
Does Nonprofit Ownership Matter?, Jill R. Horwitz
Does Nonprofit Ownership Matter?, Jill R. Horwitz
Articles
In recent years, policymakers have increasingly questioned whether nonprofit institutions, particularly hospitals, merit tax exemption. They argue that nonprofit hospitals differ little from their for-profit counterparts in the provision of charity care and, therefore, should either lose their tax-exempt status or adhere to new, strict, and specific requirements to provide free services for the poor. In this Article, I present evidence that hospital ownership-whether it is for-profit, nonprofit, or government owned-has a significant effect on the mix of medical services it offers. Despite notoriously weak enforcement mechanisms, nonprofit hospitals act in the public interest by providing services that are unlikely …
Boilerplate And Economic Power In Auto-Manufacturing Contracts, Omri Ben-Shahar, James J. White
Boilerplate And Economic Power In Auto-Manufacturing Contracts, Omri Ben-Shahar, James J. White
Book Chapters
This chapter examines the boilerplate contracts used by auto makers to procure parts from suppliers. It identifies drafting and negotiation techniques that are used to secure advantageous terms. It also explores some prominent specific arrangements as evidence that firms with bargaining power are exploiting their position to dictate self-serving but inefficient terms. Finally, it shows how standard contractual clauses solve the problem of ex-post hold-up by suppliers.
China's Acquisitions Abroad - Global Ambitions, Domestic Effects, Nicholas C. Howson
China's Acquisitions Abroad - Global Ambitions, Domestic Effects, Nicholas C. Howson
Articles
In the past year or so, the world has observed with seeming trepidation what appears to be a new phenomenon-China's "stepping out" into the world economy. The move, labeled the "Going Out Strategy" by Chinese policy makers, sees China acting in the world not just as a trader of commodities and raw materials, or the provider of inexpensively-produced consumer goods for every corner of the globe, but as a driven and sophisticated acquirer of foreign assets and the equity interests in the legal entities that control such assets. The New Yorker magazine, ever topical and appropriately humorous, highlighted this attention …
Seeking Truth For Power: Informational Strategy And Regulatory Policymaking, Cary Coglianese, Richard Zeckhauser, Edward A. Parson
Seeking Truth For Power: Informational Strategy And Regulatory Policymaking, Cary Coglianese, Richard Zeckhauser, Edward A. Parson
Articles
Information is the lifeblood of regulatory policy. The effective use of governmental power depends on information about conditions in the world, strategies for improving those conditions, and the consequences associated with deploying different strategies. Indeed, this need for information has led legislatures to create specialized committee structures, delegate policy authority to expert agencies, and develop administrative procedures that encourage analysis. Although legal scholars have extensively debated procedures and reforms designed to improve the analytic and scientific basis of regulatory policymaking, they have paid relatively little attention to how regulators gain the information they need for making and implementing regulatory policy. …
Why We Need The Independent Sector: The Behavior, Law, And Ethics Of Not-For-Profit Hospitals, Jill R. Horwitz
Why We Need The Independent Sector: The Behavior, Law, And Ethics Of Not-For-Profit Hospitals, Jill R. Horwitz
Articles
Among the major forms of corporate ownership, the not-for-profit ownership form is distinct in its behavior, legal constraints, and moral obligations. A new empirical analysis of the American hospital industry, using eleven years of data for all urban general hospitals in the country, shows that corporate form accounts for large differences in the provision of specific medical services. Not-for-profit hospitals systematically provide both private and public goods that are in the public interest, and that other forms fail to provide. Two hypotheses are proposed to account for the findings, one legal and one moral. While no causal claims are made, …
A Taxing Settlement, Hanoch Dagan, James J. White
A Taxing Settlement, Hanoch Dagan, James J. White
Articles
The following essay is based on the talk "Government, Citizens, and Injurious Industries: A Case Study of the Tobacco Litigation," delivered by Hanoch Dagan last May to the Detroit Chapter of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, and on the article "Governments, Citizens, and Injurious Industries," by Dagan and James J. White, '62, which appeared in 75.2 New York University Law Review 254-428 (May 2000). The authors hold conflicting view on the underlying issue of this topic: tobacco company product liability. Professor Dagan holds the position that tobacco companies are liable for harm done by their products; Professor …
Governments, Citizens, And Injurious Industries, Hanoch Dagan, James J. White
Governments, Citizens, And Injurious Industries, Hanoch Dagan, James J. White
Articles
In this Article, Professors Hanoch Dagan and James White study the most recent challenge raised by mass torts litigation: the interference of governments with the bilateral relationship between citizens and injurious industries. Using the tobacco settlement as their case study, Dagan and White explore the important benefits and the grave dangers of recognizing governments' entitlement to reimbursement for costs they have incurred in preventing or ameliorating their citizens' injuries. They further demonstrate that the current law can help capture these benefits and guard against the entailing risks, showing how subrogation law can serve as the legal foundation of the governments' …
Antitrust Enfocement And High-Technology Markets, William J. Baer, David A. Balto
Antitrust Enfocement And High-Technology Markets, William J. Baer, David A. Balto
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
Although the antitrust laws apply to all industries, the application must be tempered in each case by the myriad ways in which competition can be modified by structural, behavioral, technological, regulatory, and other characteristics. The Commission applies the antitrust laws with sensitivity to the special characteristics of high-tech industries and of intellectual property, but also with the recognition that--as in other industries--competition plays an important role in spurring innovation and in spreading the benefits of that innovation to consumers. This focus is not new. This balanced approach has roots that go back at least to the 1977 Antitrust Guide to …
The Bigness Complex: Industry, Labor, And Government In The American Economy, James R. Steffen
The Bigness Complex: Industry, Labor, And Government In The American Economy, James R. Steffen
Michigan Law Review
A Review of The Bigness Complex: Industry, Labor, and Government in the American Economy by Walter Adams and James W. Brock
Japan's High Technology Industries: Lessons And Limitations Of Industrial Policy, Steven R. Englund
Japan's High Technology Industries: Lessons And Limitations Of Industrial Policy, Steven R. Englund
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Japan's High Technology Industries: Lessons and Limitations of Industrial Policy edited by Hugh Patrick
Canada's Foreign Investment Review Act And The Problem Of Industrial Policy, James M. Spence Q.C.
Canada's Foreign Investment Review Act And The Problem Of Industrial Policy, James M. Spence Q.C.
Michigan Journal of International Law
The purpose of this article is to consider the Foreign Investment Review Act (FIRA or the Act) of Canada in the context of the continuing discussion in North America of the concept of "industrial policy." The particular version of industrial policy of interest for this purpose is the concept which involves interventionist activity by the government designed to affect directly the economic activity of an industry, company, or plant. The first part of the article briefly describes the background and operation of FIRA. The second part comments on the concept of interventionist industrial policy as it has developed in Canada. …
Industrial Policy In The Field Of Informatics In Brazil, Walter Douglas Stuber
Industrial Policy In The Field Of Informatics In Brazil, Walter Douglas Stuber
Michigan Journal of International Law
This article first presents a brief overview of Brazilian industrial development. This overview provides a basis for understanding how the Brazilian Government's informatics policy differs from past Brazilian industrial models. The article then describes the Brazilian Government's policy in the field of informatics. It concludes that a policy which is less protectionist than the government's current program would, through allowing greater foreign participation in the market, better encourage the development of Brazilian informatic companies.
The Role Of Planning Contracts In The Conduct Of French Industrial Policy, Saul Estrin, Peter M. Holmes
The Role Of Planning Contracts In The Conduct Of French Industrial Policy, Saul Estrin, Peter M. Holmes
Michigan Journal of International Law
The French have a long history of state economic planning, of comprehensive industrial policy, and of contractualised relations between the state and firms, though the links between them have not always been close. In the following section we review the relevant history of French planning and industrial policy. We focus in the second section on the development of contractual relations between corporations and the state in postwar France until the Socialists took office in 1981. In the third section we discuss recent developments, and we conclude with a theoretical appraisal of the experience.
Whither The Future Of Japanese Industrial Development Policies?, Merit E. Janow
Whither The Future Of Japanese Industrial Development Policies?, Merit E. Janow
Michigan Journal of International Law
This article describes past and present Japanese industrial policies. After discussing the evolution of Japanese industrial policies generally, it addresses the specific instruments of those policies including those intended to assist declining industries as well as those intended to promote the development of new industries. Finally, this article suggests that government guidance of Japan's industrial sector has decreased and is likely to decrease further still in the future.
Foreign Investment Laws In Developing Countries, Jane E. Cross
Foreign Investment Laws In Developing Countries, Jane E. Cross
Michigan Journal of International Law
Rather than extensively analyzing the various laws of Argentina, Mexico, and Nigeria that are specifically designed to encourage foreign investment, this note endeavors to explain how the laws of these countries that have as the primary function the monitoring and restricting of foreign investment activity are able to refrain from severely discouraging the foreign investment needed to promote industrialization. The tendency of LDCs to liberalize their restrictive foreign investment laws over the last few years demonstrates the growing importance of minimizing the adverse impact of legal constraints on foreign capital investment.
Investment Incentives And Guarantees In The Republic Of China, The Republic Of Korea, Thailand, And The People's Republic Of China, Barbara J. Martin
Investment Incentives And Guarantees In The Republic Of China, The Republic Of Korea, Thailand, And The People's Republic Of China, Barbara J. Martin
Michigan Journal of International Law
This note will focus on direct investment in four countries in Southeast Asia: the Republic of China (ROC), the Republic of Korea (ROK or South Korea), Thailand, and the People's Republic of China (PRC). Despite similar goals, these four countries differ significantly in their treatment of foreign investors.
Technology Diffusion And The Performance Of American Manufacturing: A Propsal For An Industrial Extension Service, Frank Ostroff
Technology Diffusion And The Performance Of American Manufacturing: A Propsal For An Industrial Extension Service, Frank Ostroff
Michigan Journal of International Law
The purpose of this article is to propose an Industrial Extension Service modeled upon the Agricultural Extension Service, and suggest how it might effectively address certain fundamental problems hindering the performance of the American manufacturing sector. Part I highlights some probable causes of American manufacturing's declining relative performance. Part II discusses why firms may adopt new technology more slowly than would be optimal. Part III considers the model of the Agricultural Extension Service, pointing out those features that make it attractive and those features that would have to be changed in applying it to the industrial sector. Part III also …
An Alternative To High Tech, Donald E. Dekieffer
An Alternative To High Tech, Donald E. Dekieffer
Michigan Journal of International Law
In recent years American industry's ability to compete in the international marketplace has appeared to decline. With a decreased world market share and a balance of payments deficit many policymakers have concluded that traditional industry is dying and that it is time to reassess American economic strength in new and more advanced industries, that is, "high-tech" industries. The "failure" of domestic "smokestack" industries producing automobiles, steel, and textiles allegedly supports this view. However, the problems of these industries are attributable to the current structure and climate of international and domestic trade. To offer any realistic solutions, the following issues must …
The Joint Enterprise: Collaboration Between The Public And Private Sectors, Howard Anawalt, Karen Robbins
The Joint Enterprise: Collaboration Between The Public And Private Sectors, Howard Anawalt, Karen Robbins
Michigan Journal of International Law
This article first outlines the structures of the joint and tripartite enterprises. It then addresses two legal concerns facing an operational enterprise, the potential tort liability of enterprise participants and antitrust restrictions. Tort liability is a threshold concern of any joint venture or partnership, and antitrust law is a basic constraint on the operations of any business. The article proceeds to show that the problems they pose for a joint enterprise can be minimized or avoided. In the third part of the article the authors demonstrate the special utility of the joint enterprise.
The United States Specialty Steel Industry, Michael H. Leb
The United States Specialty Steel Industry, Michael H. Leb
Michigan Journal of International Law
Part I of this note briefly describes the problems of the specialty steel industry and traces the attempts to deal with those problems from 1968 through the imposition of the relief measures which spawned the current negotiations. After discussing the trade history of the specialty steel industry, the note examines the effectiveness of two domestic import relief statutes through which the government has attempted to assist the industry. The note then analyzes U.S. attempts to aid the specialty steel industry through measures which violate the fundamental principles of the GATT system. The note concludes that since the GATT system cannot …
The Large Civil Aircraft Industry: Applying Legal Policy-Making Tools To Accommodate A Changing Industry, Dennis G. Terez
The Large Civil Aircraft Industry: Applying Legal Policy-Making Tools To Accommodate A Changing Industry, Dennis G. Terez
Michigan Journal of International Law
This note first examines the emergence of Airbus Industrie (Al or Airbus) and identifies some of the legal and policy instruments which the European governments have employed to make Al a successful competitor. After a brief discussion of the growing difficulties with subsidy policies, the note considers European Community legislation for a common European industrial policy and the creation of a European Export Bank as possible alternative solutions for maintaining Al's competitiveness. The note finally argues that international industrial agreements are necessary legal tools for effective regulation of the manufacture and sale of large civil aircraft. International agreements currently in …