Law Commons^™

Scaffolding: Using Formal Contracts To Build Informal Relations To Support Innovation, Gillian K. Hadfield, Iva Bozovic

Gillian K Hadfield

The Cost Of Law: Promoting Access To Justice Through The (Un)Corporate Practice Of Law, Gillian K. Hadfield

Gillian K Hadfield

The U.S. faces a mounting crisis in access to justice. Vast numbers of ordinary Americans represent themselves in routine legal matters daily in our over-burdened courts. Obtaining ex ante legal advice is effectively impossible for almost everyone except larger corporate entities, organizations and governments. In this paper, I explain why, as a matter of economic policy, it is essential that the legal profession abandon the prohibition on the corporate practice of law in order to remedy the access problem. The prohibitions on the corporate practice of law rule out the use of essential organizational and contracting tools widely used in …

What Is Law? A Coordination Model Of The Characteristics Of Legal Order, Gillian K. Hadfield, Barry R. Weingast

Gillian K Hadfield

Legal philosophers have long debated the question, what is law? But few in social science have attempted to explain the phenomenon of legal order. In this article, we build a rational choice model of legal order in an environment that relies exclusively on decentralized enforcement, such as we find in human societies prior to the emergence of the nation state and inmanymodern settings.Wedemonstrate thatwecan support an equilibrium in which wrongful behavior is effectively deterred by exclusively decentralized enforcement, specifically collective punishment. Equilibrium is achieved by an institution that supplies a common logic for classifying behavior as wrongful or not. We …

Producing Law For Innovation, Gillian K. Hadfield

Gillian K Hadfield

In this chapter I first discuss why we need to think of legal infrastructure as economic infrastructure requiring focused economic policymaking, what is wrong with our existing legal infrastructure and why we need to change our modes of legal production. I then set out a vision of what greater reliance on market-based production of legal infrastructure could look like. Finally, I suggest some concrete steps that policymakers can take to move us toward a more open, competitive system of legal production. These include 1) opening up access to the provision of legal services, such as by establishing a federal licensing …

Producing Law For Innovation, Gillian K. Hadfield

Gillian K Hadfield

In this contribution to the forthcoming Rules for Growth prepared by the Kauffman Task Force on Law, Innovation and Growth, I first discuss why we need to think of legal infrastructure as economic infrastructure requiring focused economic policymaking, what is wrong with our existing legal infrastructure and why we need to change our modes of legal production. I then set out a vision of what greater reliance on market-based production of legal infrastructure could look like. Finally, I suggest some concrete steps that policymakers can take to move us toward a more open, competitive system of legal production. These include …

Equipping The Garage Guys In Law, Gillian K. Hadfield

Gillian K Hadfield

The twin structural changes of the last few decades—globalization and the emergence of a web-based platform for economic activity--have transformed the economic demand for law. The market for law, however, has struggled to keep up with these changes, showing few signs of the kind of innovation that we see in many other sectors of the new economy. Even our most sophisticated and innovative corporations report difficulty in finding lawyers with the kinds of risk-attuned and creative problem-solving skills that they need (Hadfield 2011). Some large corporate clients have gone so far as to refuse to hire new law firm associates, …

The Many Legal Institutions That Support Contractual Commitment, Gillian K. Hadfield

Gillian K Hadfield

One of the fundamental contributions of transaction cost theory and institutional economics has been to focus attention on opening the "black box" of contract enforcement, drawing attention to the institutions required to achieve effective and low-cost contract enforcement. The idea that the effectiveness of contract law is critical to the growth of economic activity is widespread in the literature on development and transition economies. Recent studies attempting to document toe relative strength of contract enforcement in different settings (La Porta, et al., 19982; Djankov, et al., 2003), however, have focused on relatively abstract notions of "courts" and "legal systems" and …

Delivering Legality On The Internet: Developing Principles For The Private Provision Of Commercial Law, Gillian K. Hadfield

Gillian K Hadfield

No abstract provided.

Privatizing Commercial Law: Lessons From Icann, Gillian K. Hadfield

Gillian K Hadfield

No abstract provided.

The Price Of Law: How The Market For Lawyers Distorts The Justice System, Gillian K. Hadfield

Gillian K Hadfield

Why are lawyers so expensive? This paper explores the economics of the markets for lawyers and the reasons why pricing for lawyers departs from competitive pricing. Unlike conventional analyses, which emphasize entry restrictions, this analysis emphasizes market imperfections due to the nature of legal reasoning and practice and in particular the role of increasing returns to specialization and cognitive skill. The analysis also emphasizes the impact of market dynamics on the distribution of legal services, particularly high end legal work, between corporate and individual clients.

Problematic Relations: Franchising And The Law Of Incomplete Contracts, Gillian K. Hadfield

Gillian K Hadfield

This paper explores an alternative approach to the analysis of franchise contracts which takes seriously their unavoidable incompleteness. The point of departure is the fundamental insight of relational contracting theory, namely that when a contract is embedded within an identifiable relationship, such as the franchise relationship, contractual obligations are often modified, supplemented or completely supplanted by the norms of the ongoing relation. Thus far, the explication of this insight has been along largely theoretical lines. My objective in this article is to further develop the theoretical analysis of the importance of relational elements in order to fashion operational guidelines for …