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Full-Text Articles in Law
Judicial Tactics In The European Court Of Human Rights, Shai Dothan
Judicial Tactics In The European Court Of Human Rights, Shai Dothan
Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has been criticized for issuing harsher judgments against developing states than it does against the states of Western Europe. It has also been seen by some observers as issuing increasingly demanding judgments. This paper develops a theory of judicial decision-making that accounts for these trends. In order to obtain higher compliance rates with the judgments that promote its preferences, the ECHR seeks to increase its reputation. The court gains reputation every time a state complies with its judgments, and loses reputation every time a state fails to comply with its judgments. Not every …
Regulation, Unemployment, And Cost-Benefit Analysis, Eric A. Posner, Jonathan Masur
Regulation, Unemployment, And Cost-Benefit Analysis, Eric A. Posner, Jonathan Masur
Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers
Regulatory agencies take account of the potential unemployment effects of proposed regulations in an ad hoc, theoretically incorrect way. Current practice is to conduct feasibility analysis, under which the agency predicts the unemployment effects of a proposed regulation, and then declines to regulate (or weakens the proposed regulation) if the unemployment effects exceed an unarticulated threshold, that is, seem “too high.” Agencies do not reveal the threshold, do not explain why certain unemployment effects are excessive, and do not explain how they compare unemployment effects and the net benefits of the regulation. Many agencies also predict unemployment effects incorrectly. The …
Keynote: The Crisis And Criminal Justice, Bernard E. Harcourt
Keynote: The Crisis And Criminal Justice, Bernard E. Harcourt
Articles
No abstract provided.
The Social Evaluation Of Intergenerational Policies And Its Application To Integrated Assessment Models Of Climate Change, David A. Weisbach, Louis Kaplow, Elisabeth Moyer
The Social Evaluation Of Intergenerational Policies And Its Application To Integrated Assessment Models Of Climate Change, David A. Weisbach, Louis Kaplow, Elisabeth Moyer
Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics
Assessment of climate change policies requires aggregation of costs and benefits over time and across generations, a process ordinarily done through discounting. Choosing the correct discount rate has proved to be controversial and highly consequential. To clarify past analysis and guide future work, we decompose discounting along two dimensions. First, we distinguish discounting by individuals, an empirical matter that determines their behavior in models, and discounting by an outside evaluator, an ethical matter involving the choice of a social welfare function. Second, for each type of discounting, we distinguish it due to pure time preference from that attributable to curvature …
Carbon Taxation In Europe: Expanding The Eu Carbon Price, David A. Weisbach
Carbon Taxation In Europe: Expanding The Eu Carbon Price, David A. Weisbach
Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics
The current pricing mechanism for carbon in the EU, the EU emissions trading system, only covers 40 percent of emissions. Carbon taxation currently plays no role. The Commission has recently proposed to revise the energy tax system in the EU to include a carbon tax component. This paper evaluates the Commission proposal and considers the possible expansion of the EU carbon pricing base either by expanding emissions trading to cover more sectors or by enacting a carbon tax. It concludes that there are strong arguments for expanding the carbon pricing base, as suggested by the Commission. Nevertheless, expanding the base …
Discount Rates, Judgments, Individuals’ Risk Preferences, And Uncertainty, Louis Kaplow, David A. Weisbach
Discount Rates, Judgments, Individuals’ Risk Preferences, And Uncertainty, Louis Kaplow, David A. Weisbach
Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics
The choice of the proper discount rate is important in the analysis of projects whose costs and benefits extend into the future, a particularly striking feature of policies directed at climate change. Much of the literature, including prominent work by Arrow et al. (1996), Stern (2007, 2008), and Dasgupta (2008), employs a reduced-form approach that conflates social value judgments and individuals' risk preferences, the latter raising an empirical question about choices under uncertainty rather than a matter for ethical reflection. This article offers a simple, explicit decomposition that clarifies the distinction, reveals unappreciated difficulties with the reduced-form approach, and relates …
Is Knowledge Of The Tax Law Socially Desirable?, David A. Weisbach
Is Knowledge Of The Tax Law Socially Desirable?, David A. Weisbach
Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics
This paper considers whether knowledge of the tax law is socially desirable. Unlike other laws, which most often attempt to channel behavior, revenue raising taxes attempt to avoid changing behavior, so it is not obvious whether or when knowledge of the tax law is desirable. I argue that whether knowledge of the tax law is desirable depends on three factors: expectations about the tax in the absence of knowledge, the type of tax, and the quality of the tax. I then apply this to various policy decisions where knowledge of the tax law is a key variable, including the regulation …
Last Chance, America, Joseph Isenbergh
Last Chance, America, Joseph Isenbergh
Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics
No abstract provided.
Present Bias And Criminal Law, Richard H. Mcadams
Present Bias And Criminal Law, Richard H. Mcadams
Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics
Although "present bias" (or weakness of will, impulsiveness, myopia, or bounded willpower) was flagged as an issue for legal examination by Tom Ulen and Russell Korobkin over a decade ago, the concept has received insufficient attention in the legal field—and most of that attention has focused on its implications for the regulation of credit and savings. But, as demonstrated by this Article, the inconsistency of time preferences has wider implications, especially for criminal law. First, present bias may have significant implications for the general deterrence of crime. Individuals with time-inconsistent preferences may give in to immediate temptations to offend, even …
Privatization And The Sale Of Tax Revenues, Julie Roin
Privatization And The Sale Of Tax Revenues, Julie Roin
Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics
No abstract provided.
Rhetoric And Reality In Early American Legal History: A Reply To Gordon Wood, Alison Lacroix
Rhetoric And Reality In Early American Legal History: A Reply To Gordon Wood, Alison Lacroix
Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers
No abstract provided.
Teaching Patriotism: Love And Critical Reform, Martha Craven Nussbaum
Teaching Patriotism: Love And Critical Reform, Martha Craven Nussbaum
Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers
No abstract provided.
Willpower Taxes, Lee Anne Fennell
Willpower Taxes, Lee Anne Fennell
Articles
Self-control and related concepts appear regularly in tax discussions, but often they are invoked hazily or blurred together with other aspects of choice over time. Despite the evident relevance of willpower to consumption patterns, wealth accumulation, and, ultimately, well-being, there is no consensus about whether and how heterogeneity along this dimension should factor into tax policy. There is support in the tax literature for such divergent responses as funneling more resources to low-willpower people, penalizing them for their lapses, and limiting their choices. Whether we should follow one of these approaches, or some other approach entirely, requires a careful analysis …
Judicial Inconsistency As Virtue: The Case Of Justice Stevens, Justin Driver
Judicial Inconsistency As Virtue: The Case Of Justice Stevens, Justin Driver
Articles
No abstract provided.
After Google Book Search: Rebooting The Digital Library, Randal C. Picker
After Google Book Search: Rebooting The Digital Library, Randal C. Picker
Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics
No abstract provided.
Commensurability And Agency: Two Yet-To-Be-Met Challenges For Law And Economics, Alon Harel, Ariel Porat
Commensurability And Agency: Two Yet-To-Be-Met Challenges For Law And Economics, Alon Harel, Ariel Porat
Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics
No abstract provided.
Property And Precaution, Lee Anne Fennell
Property And Precaution, Lee Anne Fennell
Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics
Property in land suffers from an unacknowledged precautionary deficit. Ownership is dispensed in standardized blocks of monopoly control that are routinely retained in their entirety until someone raises an issue regarding an actual or potential incompatible land use. This arrangement, which encourages owners to take sustained, unpriced draws against a limited stock of future flexibility, sets the stage for future impasse as inconsistent plans develop. It also makes property an unnecessarily accident-prone institution, given the role that bargaining failure plays in producing costly land use conflicts. Expanding the slate of potential precautions beyond owners' locational and operational choices to include …
Reversible Rewards, Omri Ben-Shahar, Anu Bradford
Reversible Rewards, Omri Ben-Shahar, Anu Bradford
Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics
This article offers a new mechanism of law enforcement, combining sanctions and rewards into a scheme of "reversible rewards." A law enforcer sets up a pre-committed fund and offers it as reward to another party to refrain from violation. If the violator turns down the reward, the enforcer can use the money in the fund for one purpose only—to pay for punishment of the violator. The article shows that this scheme doubles the effect of funds invested in enforcement, and allows enforcers to stop violations that would otherwise be too difficult to deter. It argues that reversible rewards could be …
Commensurability And Agency: Two Yet-To-Be-Met Challenges For Law And Economics, Alon Harel, Ariel Porat
Commensurability And Agency: Two Yet-To-Be-Met Challenges For Law And Economics, Alon Harel, Ariel Porat
Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers
No abstract provided.
Property And Precaution, Lee Anne Fennell
Property And Precaution, Lee Anne Fennell
Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers
Property in land suffers from an unacknowledged precautionary deficit. Ownership is dispensed in standardized blocks of monopoly control that are routinely retained in their entirety until someone raises an issue regarding an actual or potential incompatible land use. This arrangement, which encourages owners to take sustained, unpriced draws against a limited stock of future flexibility, sets the stage for future impasse as inconsistent plans develop. It also makes property an unnecessarily accident-prone institution, given the role that bargaining failure plays in producing costly land use conflicts. Expanding the slate of potential precautions beyond owners' locational and operational choices to include …
Radical Throught From Marx, Nietzsche, And Freud, Through Foucault, To The Present: Comments On Steven Lukes’ “In Defense Of False Consciousness, Bernard E. Harcourt
Radical Throught From Marx, Nietzsche, And Freud, Through Foucault, To The Present: Comments On Steven Lukes’ “In Defense Of False Consciousness, Bernard E. Harcourt
Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers
No abstract provided.
Selective Judicial Activism, Geoffrey R. Stone
The Antitrust Economics Of Free, David S. Evans
The Antitrust Economics Of Free, David S. Evans
Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics
This article examines antitrust analysis when one of the possible subject products of an antitrust or merger is ordinarily offered at a zero price. It shows that businesses often offer a product for free because it increases the overall profits they can earn from selling the free product and a companion product to either the same customer or different customers. The companion product may be a complement, a premium version of the free product, or the product on the other side of a two-sided market. The article then shows how antitrust and merger analysis should proceed when the subject is …
Bargaining With Double Jeopardy, Saul Levmore, Ariel Porat
Bargaining With Double Jeopardy, Saul Levmore, Ariel Porat
Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics
Virtually every legal system specifies a variety of burdens of proof for different kinds of claims, and then secures each specification with another, nominally unrelated rule pertaining to relitigation. In criminal law, where a prosecutor might be required to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the prosecutor is prevented from repeatedly drawing from the urn, as it were, by the familiar and nearly universal rule of double jeopardy. We suggest that if law were to weaken the protection, or more likely to permit the defendant to waive the double jeopardy protection, both private and social benefits might follow. The benefits …
Car Trouble, Douglas G. Baird
Car Trouble, Douglas G. Baird
Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics
By common account, the reorganizations of Chrysler and General Motors were extraordinary cases, very much alike, but different from any other. Government intervention on such a scale is not likely to recur and, given their peculiar character, these bankruptcies offer few lessons for corporate reorganizations as a general matter. This essay suggests that this perception is fundamentally wrong. Each case presented a radically different challenge for the bankruptcy system. Moreover, these two distinct challenges, far from being unusual, are not particularly related to the fact of government involvement and are likely to recur many times. The debate over speedy sales …
Fixing Unfair Contracts, Omri Ben-Shahar
Fixing Unfair Contracts, Omri Ben-Shahar
Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics
Various doctrines of contract and consumer protection law allow courts to strike down unfair contract terms. A large literature has explored the question which terms should be viewed as unfair, but a related question has never been studied systematically—what provision should replace the vacated unfair term? How should a distributively unfair contract be fixed? This Article demonstrates that the law uses three competing criteria for a replacement provision: (1) the most reasonable term; (2) a punitive term, strongly unfavorable to the overreaching party; and (3) the minimally tolerable term, which preserves the original term as much as is tolerable. The …
Reconsidering Racial And Partisan Gerrymandering, Richard T. Holden, Adam B. Cox
Reconsidering Racial And Partisan Gerrymandering, Richard T. Holden, Adam B. Cox
Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics
In recent years, scholars have come to a general agreement about the relationship between partisan gerrymandering and racial redistricting. Drawing districts that contain a majority of minority voters, as is often required by the Voting Rights Act, is said to help minority voters in those districts but hurt the Democratic Party more broadly. This Article argues that this familiar claim is based on a mistaken assumption about how redistricters can best manipulate districts for partisan gain—an assumption grounded in the idea that all voters can be thought of as either Democrats or Republicans. Relaxing this assumption, and acknowledging that voters …
Constitutional Amendment Rules: A Comparative Perspective, Rosalind Dixon
Constitutional Amendment Rules: A Comparative Perspective, Rosalind Dixon
Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers
No abstract provided.
Constitutional Amendment Rules: The Denominator Problem, Rosalind Dixon, Richard T. Holden
Constitutional Amendment Rules: The Denominator Problem, Rosalind Dixon, Richard T. Holden
Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers
No abstract provided.
Naturalized Jurisprudence And American Legal Realism Revisited, Brian Leiter
Naturalized Jurisprudence And American Legal Realism Revisited, Brian Leiter
Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers
No abstract provided.