Law Commons^™

Law In The Shadow Of Bargaining: The Feedback Effect Of Civil Settlements, Ben Depoorter

Ben Depoorter

Lawmakers, courts, and legal scholars often express concern that settlement agreements withhold important information from the public. This Essay identifies, to the contrary, problematic issues involving the availability of information on non-representative settlements. The theoretical and empirical evidence presented in this Essay demonstrates that, despite the widespread use of nondisclosure agreements, information on settlements is distributed both inside and outside legal communities, reaching actors through various channels including the oral culture in legal communities, specialized reporters, professional interest organizations, and media coverage. Moreover, information on private settlement agreements circulates more widely if the agreed compensation in a given settlement exceeds …

Poisoning The Well: Law & Economics And Racial Inequality, Robert Suggs

Robert E. Suggs

The standard Law & Economics analysis of racial discrimination has stunted our thinking about race. Its early conclusion, that laws prohibiting racial discrimination were unnecessary and wasteful, discredited economic analysis of racial phenomena within the civil rights community. As a consequence we know little about the impact of racial discrimination on commercial transactions between business firms. Laws do not prohibit racial discrimination in transactions between business firms, and the disparity in business revenues between racial minorities and the white mainstream dwarf disparities in income by orders of magnitude. This disparity in business revenues is a major factor in the persistence …

The New Federalism Attack On Doma: Does The Supreme Court Really Care About States' Rights?, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

Competition Law And The International Transport Sectors, Sock Yong Phang

PHANG Sock Yong

No abstract provided.

The Origins And Costs Of Short-Term Management, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

Why is a fixation on the short term a problem for American businesses? One might hasten to answer that management is compensated for short-term successes. Another answer might be that some investors—particularly professional investors—value only the short term and manipulate the market in a particular stock so they can profit on the movement. These answers undoubtedly are part of the answer. But a puzzle remains: why does the market not punish such short-termism? This essay will present a possible answer.

The Supreme Court, Empathy, And The Science Of Decision Making, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

Of Big And Small Tents: Arlen Specter As A Dem, And The Obama Storm At Notre Dame, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

Technology & Uncertainty: The Shaping Effect On Copyright Law, Ben Depoorter

Ben Depoorter

This Article examines the symbiotic relationship between copyright law and technology. I describe how an environment characterized by rapid technological change creates two conditions that determine the direction and evolution of copyright law: legal delay and legal uncertainty. I explain how uncertainty over the application of existing copyright law to newly emerging technology catalyzes the actions of copyright owners and users. I argue that uncertainty and delay (1) have an enabling effect on anticopyright sentiments, (2) lead to a greater reliance on self-help efforts by content providers and users, and (3) induce legislative involvement in copyright law. In the final …

Who's Presumptuous Now? Mccain Articulates U.S. Foreign Policy In Georgia Conflict, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

I Want To Be Too Big To Fail, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

Mukasey's Defense Of Professional Irresponsibility, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

Christians In The American Empire: Faith And Citizenship In The New World Order, Vincent Rougeau

Vincent D. Rougeau

What does it mean to be a Christian citizen of the United States today? This book challenges the argument that the United States is a Christian nation, and that the American founding and the American Constitution can be linked to a Christian understanding of the state and society. Vincent Rougeau argues that the United States has become an economic empire of consumer citizens, led by elites who seek to secure American political and economic dominance around the world. Freedom and democracy for the oppressed are the public themes put forward to justify this dominance, but the driving force behind American …

A New Era For Corporate Law: Using Corporate Governance Law To Benefit All Stakeholders, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

Under Cover Of Science: American Legal-Economic Theory And The Quest For Objectivity, James Hackney Jr.

James R. Hackney Jr.

No abstract provided.

Enter The Poor: American Welfare Reform, Solidarity And The Capability Of Human Flourishing, Vincent Rougeau

Vincent D. Rougeau

No abstract provided.

The Failure Of Corporate Law: Fundamental Flaws And Progressive Possibilities, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

When used in conjunction with corporations, the term “public” is misleading. Anyone can purchase shares of stock, but public corporations themselves are uninhibited by a sense of societal obligation or strict public oversight. In fact, managers of most large firms are prohibited by law from taking into account the interests of the public in decision making, if doing so hurts shareholders. But this has not always been the case, as until the beginning of the twentieth century, public corporations were deemed to have important civic responsibilities.

With The Failure of Corporate Law, Kent Greenfield hopes to return corporate law to …

Unconstitutional Constitution Day, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

Simultaneous And Sequential Anticommons, Francesco Parisi, Norbert Schulz, Ben Depoorter

Ben Depoorter

This paper defines a framework for anticommons analysis based on the fragmentation of property rights. In differentiating between sequential and simultaneous cases of property fragmentation, we describe and assess the equilibria obtained under each scenario. Our model reveals how the private incentives of excluders do not capture the external effects of their decisions. Moreover, our model suggests that the result of underutilization of joint property increases monotonically in both (a) the extent of fragmentation; and (b) the foregone synergies and complementarities between the property fragments. Within this context, we can therefore explore important implications for possible institutional responses to a …

The End Of A Natural Monopoly: Deregulation And Competition In The Electric Power Industry, Daniel Cole, Peter Grossman

Peter Z. Grossman

Note: full-text not available due to publisher restrictions. Link takes you to an external site where you can purchase the book or borrow it from a local library.

Using Behavioral Economics To Show The Power And Efficiency Of Corporate Law As Regulatory Tool, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

Prepared for the Daniel J. Dykstra Corporate Governance Symposium at University of California, Davis, in February 2001, this article argues that changes in corporate governance in the United States - specifically the relaxation of the profit maximization norm, the broadening of management's fiduciary duties to include workers, and the inclusion of worker representatives on boards of directors - are likely to be efficient means of reaching certain preferred policy outcomes, such as an increase in the wages of working people and a decrease in income inequality. Instead of being seen as "private law," corporate law should be regarded as a …

Ultra Vires Lives! A Stakeholder Analysis Of Corporate Illegality (With Notes On How Corporate Law Could Reinforce International Law Norms), Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

This paper argues that a remaining vestige of the ultra vires doctrine sets off illegal activities as "beyond the power" of corporations. Though largely unnoticed and unexamined until now, this part of the doctrine has been retained because none of the important corporate stakeholders has an interest in authorizing the corporation and its managers to commit illegal acts. From an ex ante perspective, the principal stakeholders in the corporate contract would want the corporation and its management to forego illegalities as a way to increase the value of the firm. Any of the stakeholders would be a potential victim of …

From Metaphor To Reality In Corporate Law, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

This essay is in response to a commentary by Professor David Millon, who ably argues in the same journal that a dependence on metaphor drives much of the debate within corporate law jurisprudence and corporate law scholarship. This essay joins Millon in his criticism.

For decades, scholars have used metaphors -- corporation as person, corporation as creature of the state, corporation as property, corporation as contract, corporation as community, to name the most prominent -- as justifications for the imposition of, or freedom from, legal and ethical requirements. The metaphors are often taken as self-evident. The legal and ethical arguments …

There's A Forest In Those Trees: Teaching About The Role Of Corporations In Society, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

This paper was prepared for the University of Georgia School of Law Conference on Teaching Corporate Law, October 16, 1999. The paper argues that the basic corporate law course should focus much more on the questions surrounding the role of the corporation in society. In the typical corporate law course, little attention is given to the broad question of the position of the corporation within society at large or the narrower question of the relationship between the corporation and workers. The lack of consideration of these issues is odd indeed, since corporate law (like all law) is understandable only within …

From Rights To Regulation In Corporate Law, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

Commentary: Fixing Realization Accounting: Symmetry, Consistency And Correctness In The Taxation Of Financial Instruments, Diane M. Ring

Diane M. Ring

No abstract provided.

Licensure Of Health Care Professionals: The Consumer's Case For Abolition, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

While state medical licensure laws ostensibly are intended to promote worthwhile goals, such as the maintenance of high standards in health care delivery, this Article argues that these laws in practice are detrimental to consumers. The Article takes the position that licensure contributes to high medical care costs and stifles competition, innovation and consumer autonomy. It concludes that delicensure would expand the range of health services available to consumers and reduce patient dependency, and that these developments would tend to make medical practice more satisfying to consumers and providers of health care services.

Medical Paternalism And The Rule Of Law: A Reply To Dr. Relman, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

In this Article, Professor Baron challenges the position taken recently by Dr. Arnold Relman in this journal that the 1977 Saikewicz decision of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts was incorrect in calling for routine judicial resolution of decisions whether to provide life-prolonging treatment to terminally ill incompetent patients. First, Professor Baron argues that Dr. Relman's position that doctors should make such decisions is based upon an outmoded, paternalistic view of the doctor-patient relationship. Second, he points out the importance of guaranteeing to such decisions the special qualities of process which characterize decision making by courts and which are not …