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Full-Text Articles in Law
Charity And Information: Correcting The Failure Of A Disjunctive Social Norm, Robert D. Cooter, Brian Broughman
Charity And Information: Correcting The Failure Of A Disjunctive Social Norm, Robert D. Cooter, Brian Broughman
Robert Cooter
Charitable donations fund social goods that the state and markets undersupply. While some people donate much to charity, most Americans donate little or nothing. Experiments in behavioral economics show that anonymity, not human nature, causes low contributions. Disclosure of each individual’s aggregate conduct is necessary for the effectiveness of any disjunctive social norm, including charity. We propose a public registry where each taxpayer can voluntarily disclose the ratio between his charitable giving and income. The registry will clarify the social norm and increase average donations. We extend our analysis to pro bono legal services where a similar registry would encourage …
Collective Action Federalism: A General Theory Of Article I, Section 8, Robert D. Cooter, Neil Siegel
Collective Action Federalism: A General Theory Of Article I, Section 8, Robert D. Cooter, Neil Siegel
Robert Cooter
The Framers of the United States Constitution wrote Article I, Section 8 in order to address some daunting collective action problems facing the young nation. They especially wanted to protect the states from military warfare by foreigners and from commercial warfare against one another. The states acted individually when they needed to act collectively, and Congress lacked power under the Articles of Confederation to address these problems. Section 8 thus authorized Congress to promote the “general Welfare” of the United States by tackling many collective action problems that the states could not solve on their own. Subsequent interpretations of Section …
A Theory Of Direct Democracy And The Single Subject Rule, Robert D. Cooter, Michae Gilbert
A Theory Of Direct Democracy And The Single Subject Rule, Robert D. Cooter, Michae Gilbert
Robert Cooter
Citizens in many states use direct democracy to make laws on everything from soda bottles and horsemeat to affirmative action and same-sex marriage. Does direct democracy save citizens from corrupt legislators, or does it enfeeble competent representatives and empower an ignorant crowd? These ideological extremes often collide in court over a technical rule – the single subject rule – that limits each ballot initiative to one “subject.” Opponents can invalidate an initiative by convincing a court that it contains two different subjects (say, marriage and domestic partnerships), while proponents can preserve it by showing that it contains only one subject …