Law Commons^™

The Effects Of Comparable‐Case Guidance On Awards For Pain And Suffering And Punitive Damages: Evidence From A Randomized Controlled Trial, Hillel J. Bavli, Reagan Mozer

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Damage awards for pain and suffering and punitive damages are notoriously unpredictable. Courts provide minimal, if any, guidance to jurors determining these awards, and apply similarly minimal standards in reviewing them. Lawmakers have enacted crude measures, such as damage caps, aimed at curbing award unpredictability, while ignoring less drastic alternatives that involve guiding jurors with information regarding damage awards in comparable cases (“comparable‐case guidance” or “prior‐award information”). The primary objections to the latter approach are based on the argument that, because prior‐award information uses information regarding awards in distinct cases, it introduces the possibility of biasing the award, or distorting …

The Obama Administration's New 'Repaye' Plan For Student Loan Borrowers: Not Much Help For Law School Graduates, Gregory S. Crespi

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

In response to President Obama’s 2014 directive the DOE has proposed a new student loan repayment option, labeled the Repay As You Earn Plan (“REPAYE Plan”). The DOE on July 9, 2015 requested comments on their proposed REPAYE Plan rules, and the Plan will probably be open for enrollment in early 2016 for up to 6 million student loan borrowers who are not eligible for enrollment in the generous Pay As You Earn Plan (“PAYE Plan”) because of their pre-October 1, 2007 federal student loan debts. I estimate that approximately 72,000 of those 6 million persons are law graduates. However, …

Teaching About Economic Efficiency In Law And Economics Courses: Clarifying The Conceptual Problems, Empirical Difficulties, And Normative Biases Of The Efficiency Criterion, Gregory S. Crespi

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Law and Economics courses taught in law schools are sometimes criticized for inadequately explaining the normative criterion of “economic efficiency” and then applying this criterion throughout the course in a superficial and biased manner that pejoratively labels most governmental market interventions and wealth redistribution measures as inefficient. These criticisms have merit, and in this brief article I point out a significant number of conceptual problems, empirical difficulties and normative shortcomings of the efficiency criterion that one needs to understand in order to be able to effectively counter policy arguments that rest upon efficiency assessments.

The specific shortcomings of the efficiency …

Economic Theory, Divided Infringement And Enforcing Interactive Patents, W. Keith Robinson

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

High tech companies – especially in the emerging areas of the Internet of Things, wearable devices, and personalized medicine – have found it difficult to enforce their patents on interactive technologies. This is especially true when multiple parties combine to perform all of the steps of a claimed method. This problem is referred to as joint or divided infringement, and some commentators advocate that “interactive” patents susceptible to divided infringement should not be enforced.

In contrast, this article argues that economic theory supports the enforcement of interactive patents. Previous papers have analyzed divided infringement problems from a doctrinal and policy …

A Game Changer For The Political Economy Of Economic Development Incentives, Stephen E. Ellis, Grant M. Hayden, Cynthia L. Rogers

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

State and local governments have embraced their authority to offer economic development incentives for the purpose of attracting, retaining, or enhancing economic activity within their borders. Collectively, these programs represent an enormous, but largely overlooked, transfer of wealth from public entities to private firms. The increasing use of economic development incentives runs counter to the guidance offered by academic researchers. With their proliferation comes the increasing need for accountability in the decision-making process. The authors consider whether the duty of care standard used in corporate governance should be applied to the public decision-making context regarding economic development incentives.

The Bizarre Law & Economics Of 'Business Roundtable V. Sec', Grant M. Hayden, Matthew T. Bodie

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Corporations are legal entities designed to foster certain kinds of collective economic activity. The decisionmaking power within a corporation ultimately rests with a board of directors elected by shareholders. Shareholders, however, do not use anything like a conventional ballot in these elections; instead, they fill out a “proxy ballot,” delivered to them by the incumbent board. This proxy ballot lists only the incumbent board’s chosen nominees, very often the board members themselves. If a shareholder wants to run for director or propose another nominee for the board, she needs to provide all other shareholders with a separate proxy ballot — …

Mortgage Modification And Strategic Behavior: A Contrarian Reading Of The Countrywide Financial Corporation Settlement, Gregory S. Crespi

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Christopher Mayer, Edward Morrison, Thomas Piskorski and Arpit Gupta of Columbia University have recently published in the Law and Finance eJournal a comprehensive study demonstrating the significant impacts on strategic default rates of the widely publicized Countrywide Financial Corporation settlement of 2008. While their study is a solid and convincing descriptive effort, their implicit assumption that strategic defaults are something to be discouraged rather than encouraged, a position that I have criticized in my earlier work, undercuts the usefulness of their work for policy guidance. From their perspective the Countrywide settlement provides a cautionary tale about difficult trade-offs to be …

The Trillion Dollar Problem Of Underwater Homeowners: Avoiding A New Surge Of Foreclosures By Encouraging Principal-Reducing Loan Modifications, Gregory S. Crespi

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

There are currently well over ten million underwater homeowners whose mortgage obligations exceed the current value of their houses, with an aggregate negative equity position of at least $800 billion and possibly over $1 trillion. The overwhelming majority of these persons continue to make their mortgage payments even though for many their interests would be better served by defaulting. This is therefore an unstable situation that could suddenly erupt with a rapid cascade of millions of strategic defaults, potentially triggering severe macroeconomic dislocations. It is urgent that this situation be defused through the modification of the mortgages of a large …

The Cult Of Efficiency In Corporate Law, Stephen E. Ellis, Grant M. Hayden

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This paper challenges a fundamental assumption of corporate law scholarship. Corporate law is heavily influenced by economics, and by normative economics in particular. Economic efficiency, for example, is seen as the primary goal of good corporate governance. But this dependence on standard notions of economic efficiency is unfortunate, as those notions are highly problematic. In economic theory, efficiency is spelled out in terms of individual preference satisfaction, which is an inadequate foundation for any sort of normative analysis. We argue that on any account of the good, people will sometimes prefer things that aren’t good for them on that account. …

International Governance Of Domestic National Security Measures: The Forgotten Role Of The World Trade Organization, Carla L. Reyes

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The current perception of the United Nations as the only institution charged with governing international security issues was neither intended nor required. Although the historical development of the World Trade Organization (WTO) caused a significant shift in its governance focus, the WTO is uniquely situated to remedy several of the governance failures suffered by the United Nations and to act as an effective governor of national security in the economic sphere. need for such an alternative governance mechanism is especially acute when nation-states refuse to recognize the authority of the United Nations over a security dispute or when a veto-holding …

Law And Economics After Behavioral Economics, Stephen E. Ellis, Grant M. Hayden

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Law, Social Justice, Economic Development, And Modern Banking Sector Legal Reform: Taking In The 'Excluded', Joseph J. Norton

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This chapter examines a critical banking reform issue in developing countries – the equitable inclusion of individuals effectively excluded from mainstream banking/financial sectors of their respective countries. The author sets forth the proposition that the equitable and accessible provision of banking services has never been considered a core component to modern banking sector legal reform and assessment in the developing world. After more than two decades of study and practical involvement with financial sector reform in developing, transitioning and emerging economies, the author has the general view that the future banking/financial sector legal policy and infrastructure reform process for International …

Beyond Tinkering: Economics After Behavioral Economics, Stephen E. Ellis, Grant M. Hayden

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This paper assesses the current state of law and economics, standard and behavioral, and proposes an additional element to the basic belief-desire apparatus of economic theory in order to create a more unified theory of behavior.

The first part of the paper assesses the current status of standard economic theory. While standard models have had their successes, a large and growing body of empirical evidence reveals that people often fail to live up its rational-actor ideal. In response, economists usually stick with standard consumer theory and attempt to explain the anomalous results by referring to some overlooked input (e.g., some …

Work Product Rejected: A Reply To Professor Allen, Elizabeth G. Thornburg

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This article responds to Professor Ronald Allen's Work Product Revisited: A Comment on Rethinking Work Product.

A Shared Values Approach To Jurisdictional Conflicts In International Economic Law, Bernhard Grossfeld, C. Paul Rogers Iii

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Common Commercial Policy Of The Eec: Developments In The Final Stage, Joseph J. Norton

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Doing Business And U.S. Commercial Treaties: The Case With The Member States Of The Eec, Joseph J. Norton

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Heart Of The Matter: U.K. And The Eec, The Problem Of Agriculture, Joseph J. Norton

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.