Law Commons^™

Justice And Reasonable Care In Negligence Law, Richard W. Wright

All Faculty Scholarship

The academic literature generally assumes that an aggregate-risk-utility test is employed to determine whether conduct was reasonable or negligent. This aggregate-risk-utility test is a transparent implementation of the basic impartiality and aggregation principles of utilitarianism and the most popular (Kaldor-Hicks) interpretation of economic efficiency. Thus, the test's assumed prevalence as the criterion of reasonableness in negligence law has been highlighted by legal economists as confirmation of the utilitarian efficiency foundations of tort law, while those, including Ronald Dworkin, who think that the law, including tort law, is or should be grounded on principles of justice have sought to demonstrate that, …

The Living Commerce Clause: Federalism In Progressive Political Theory And The Commerce Clause After Lopez And Morrison, Eric R. Claeys

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

"Living Constitution " ideas are most often associated with individual-rights guarantees like equal protection and due process, but they were originally developed in the early twentieth century to revolutionize the law of the structural Constitution - including the Commerce Clause. In this Article, Professor Claeys interprets Progressive political theory, which played a crucial role in legitimating the expansion of the national government. As applied to federalism, Progressive living-Constitution theory required that the Commerce Clause be interpreted as a constitutional transmitter letting the national government regulate whatever the American people deem to be a national problem. He suggests that this notion …

Beyond Welfare Reform: Economic Justice In The 21st Century, Peter B. Edelman

Georgetown Law Faculty Lectures and Appearances

Thank you so much, Mary Louise. I am deeply honored that you asked me to be here today with you and Tomas and Dan to deliver these remarks in memory of Mario Olmos. He was a wonderful role model for the values that have been celebrated throughout this lecture series, and I am doubly honored to be added to the list of distinguished speaker who have preceded me.

Internalizing Outsider Trading, Ian Ayres, Stephen Choi

Michigan Law Review

Investing in the United States has become a hobby for many. Individual ownership of equity, moreover, has increased over the past decade due in part to the introduction of internet-based trading. While providing the possibility for greater returns compared with bank savings accounts, among other investment alternatives, the public capital markets also pose greater risks for investors. Many individual investors lack both the resources and the incentive to analyze the value of any particular security in the market. Such investors thus trade at a systematic disadvantage relative to more informed parties. In response, regulators have asserted that certain informational disparities …

The Fable Of Entry: Bounded Rationality, Market Discipline, And Legal Policy, Avishalom Tor

Michigan Law Review

Legal scholars have recently advanced a behavioral approach to the law and economics school of thought in an attempt to improve its external validity and predictive power. The hallmark of this new approach is the replacement of the perfectly rational actor with a "boundedly rational" decisionmaker who, apart from being affected by emotion and motivation, has only limited cognitive resources. To function effectively in a complex :world, boundedly rational individuals must rely on cognitive heuristics - simplifying mental shortcuts - that inevitably lead people to make some systematic decision errors; as a result, their behavior necessarily deviates from that predicted …

Brief Of Keith N. Hylton As Amicus Curiae In Support Of The Respondents In State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, Petitioner V. Curtis B. Campbell And Inez Preece Campbell, Respondents, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

Virtually all courts accept the view that high punitive damage awards are appropriate in instances where the defendant's harmful conduct is unlikely to lead to liability. See, e.g., BMW of N. Am. Inc. v. Gore, 517 U.S. 559, 582 (1996). The Utah Supreme Court reinstated the $145 million punitive damage award in this case in part on the ground that "State Farm's actions, because of their clandestine nature, will be punished at most in one out of every 50,000 cases as a matter of statistical probability." Pet App. 30a. A central issue of this case is whether the Utah Supreme …

Instability In Latin America: U.S. Policy And The Role Of The International Community: Hearing Before The Subcomm. On International Trade And Finance Of The S. Comm. On Banking, Housing, And Urban Affairs, 107th Cong., Oct. 16, 2002 (Statement Of Professor Daniel K. Tarullo, Geo. U. L. Center), Daniel K. Tarullo

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

The Stumbling Block: Freedom, Rationality, And Legal Scholarship, Jeanne L. Schroeder

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Theorizing Behavioral Law And Economics: A Defense Of Evolutionary Analysis And The Law, Neel P. Parekh

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Behavioral law and economics (BLE) provides a steady stream of empirical evidence that counters the predictions of law and economics. Despite this research and data, however, many theorists argue that BLE ultimately fails because it posits no underlying theory. This Note argues that perspectives from evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, and the brain sciences can provide the missing motivational theory for BLE's empirical findings. The Note also examines the implications a more consistent and reasoned consideration of evolutionary analysis and the law (EA) has for our legal regime. In theorizing BLE and defending EA, this Note aims to show how evolutionary …

Legally Defending Mission-Creep: How The Bretton Woods Charters Anticipate And Justify Imf Attention To "Structural" Variables In Its Oversight Of The Global Financial System, Robert C. Hockett

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Regret Theory - Explanation, Evaluation And Implications For The Law, Grant B. Gelberg

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note discusses regret theory, which offers an alternative explanation of rational behavior in risky or uncertain situations. Unlike traditional law and economics, which is based on expected utility theory, regret theory posits that individuals either rejoice or experience regret after making a decision, and that the anticipation of these feelings influences choices ex ante. In recent years, studies have shown the robustness of regret theory, particularly when individuals compare action to inaction, in disparate feedback environments, and when decisional agency is altered. These, and other factors, influence regret theory's impact on litigant behavior, as well as on the …

Teaching Real Torts: Using Barry Werth's Damages In The Law School Classroom, Tom Baker

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

It's Time To Federalize Corporate Charters, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

The Political Economy Of School Choice, Michael Heise, James E. Ryan

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This paper examines the political economy of school choice and focuses in particular on the role of suburbanites. This group, which we contend is the most important and powerful stakeholder in choice debates, has yet to receive much attention in the commentary. It turns out that suburbanites, by and large, are not wild about school choice, either public or private. Suburbanites are largely satisfied with the schools in their neighborhoods and want to protect the physical and financial independence of those schools (as well as their property values, which are tied to the perceived quality of local schools). School choice …

Paradigm Shifts And Access Controls: An Economic Analysis Of The Anticircumvention Provisions Of The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Melissa A. Kern

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note addresses the broadened scope of protection granted to copyright holders under the anticircumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA). This broadened scope extends to copyright holders the right to control access to their works, diminishing the consumer's 'fair use" of those works that previously served as a defense to alleged copyright infringements. While access controls are supported by economists who believe they are useful in correcting market inefficiencies and excluding free riders, this Note suggests that access controls cannot correct all market inefficiencies. Furthermore, such access controls deny access and use of copyrighted material …

Behavioral Finance And Investor Governance, Lawrence A. Cunningham

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

September 11 And The End Of History For Corporate Law, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

Using the tragic events of September 11th as case study; this Essay critiques a prominent, recent article that suggests the ideology of shareholder primacy has become so dominant that the "end of history" is at hand for corporate law. The author suggests that a dedication to shareholder primacy helped create the context in which the events of September 11th could occur, by making the airlines less attentive to security concerns that did not affect the airline companies' stock prices. Shareholder primacy makes corporations more likely to externalize the costs of the firms' decisions onto constituencies other than shareholders, and such …

Emergencia, Derecho , Justicia Y Seguridad Jurídica, Horacio M. Lynch

Horacio M. LYNCH

Análisis de la respuesta judicial a la crisis económica de 2002 involucrando, entre otras, las siguientes cuestiones: los amparos, su tramitación, y sus secuelas; la declaración de la inconstitucionalidad de oficio, "órdenes imposibles de cumplir", la colisión de derechos; y cuestiones político institucionales, como la gobernabilidad y el gobierno de los jueces.

Predicting Defection, Elmer J. Schaefer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Life In The Craft Of Comparative Law, John C. Reitz

Michigan Law Review

It is obvious to specialists in the law of the European Union ("E.U.") - a relatively small but steadily growing group in the United States - that a "retrospective" collection of Eric Stein's writings would be of great interest. From his 1955 article in the Columbia Law Review, the first article about the Court of Justice of the European Coal and Steel Community to appear in English (p. 473), he has been one of the dominant U.S. scholars of what was initially called "European Community" ("E.C.") law after the three original European Communities2 and more recently has been rechristened "European …

Accountability Conceptions And Federalism Tales: Disney's Wonderful World?, William W. Buzbee

Michigan Law Review

Richard Foglesong's Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando, may not offer the thrills of an entertainment park, but it is an uncommonly good read. In a book focused on approximately four decades of Disney's interactions with Orlando and state officials, political scientist Foglesong tells the tale of how Walt Disney ended up locating his new East Coast entertainment park in Orlando, Florida and what happened in subsequent government-Disney company interactions. Using chapter headings based on stages in a personal relationship's progression ("Serendipity" to "Seduction" through "Marriage," and ultimately, after interim stages, "Therapy"), Foglesong shows that while the …

A Risk/Cost Framework For Logistics Policy Evaluation: Hazardous Waste Management, Kimberly Hollister

Department of Information Management and Business Analytics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The management of hazardous waste disposal operations is extremely complex involving a multitude of environmental, engineering, economic, social and political concerns. This article proposes a framework to assist policy makers in the evaluation of logistic policies. A spatial general equilibrium based policy evaluation model is developed to calculate risk, cost, and risk equity tradeoff curves. This framework provides policy makers a tool with which they can relate resulting logistics patterns and their associated risk, cost, and equity attributes to original policy goals.

Knowledge At Work: Disputes Over The Ownership Of Human Capital In The Changing Workplace, Katherine V.W. Stone

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Economics, Public Choice, And The Perennial Conflict Of Laws, Erin O'Hara O'Connor

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

The Team Production Theory Of Corporate Law: A Critical Assessment, Alan J. Meese

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Venture Capital On The Downside: Preferred Stock And Corporate Control, William W. Bratton

Michigan Law Review

When stock indices drop precipitously, when the startup companies fizzle out, and when it stops raining money on places like Wall Street and Silicon Valley, attention turns to downside contracting. Law and business lawyers, sitting in the back seat as mere facilitators on the upside, move up to the front and sometimes even take the wheel. The job is the same on both the upside and downside: to maximize the value of going concern assets. But what comes easily on the upside can be dirty work on the down, where assets need to be separated from dysfunctional teams of business …

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 …

The Schooling Of Southern Blacks: The Roles Of Legal Activism And Private Philanthropy, 1910–1960*, John J. Donohue, James J. Heckman, Petra E. Todd

John Donohue

Improvements in education and educational quality are widely acknowledged to be major contributors to black economic progress in the twentieth century. This paper investigates the sources of improvement in black education in the South in the first half of the century and demonstrates the important roles of social activism, especially NAACP litigation and private philanthropy, in improving the quality and availability of public schooling. Many scholars view education as a rival to social activism in explaining black economic progress, but such a view misses the important role of philanthropic and legal interventions in promoting education.

Gender, Genes, And Choice: A Comparative Look At Feminism, Evolution, And Economics, Katharine K. Baker

Katharine K. Baker

Empirical Analysis And Administrative Law, Cary Coglianese

All Faculty Scholarship

Empirical research has been used to study many areas of law, including administrative law. In this article Professor Coglianese discusses the current and future role of empirical research in understanding and improving administrative rulemaking. Criticism of government regulation and calls for regulatory reform have grown in the last few decades. Empirical research is a valuable tool for designing reforms that will truly improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and legitimacy of regulatory governance. Specifically, Professor Coglianese discusses three areas of administrative law that have benefited from empirical research—economic review of new regulations, judicial review of agency rulemaking, and negotiated rulemaking.

Agencies are …