Law Commons^™

Privatization And The Law And Economics Of Political Advocacy, Alexander Volokh

ExpressO

A common argument against privatization is that private providers, motivated by self-interest, will advocate changes in substantive policy. In this Article, I evaluate this argument, using, as a case study, the argument against prison privatization based on the possibility that the private prison industry will distort the criminal law by advocating incarceration.

This “political influence” argument applies at least as well to public provision: Government agencies, too, lobby for changes in substantive law. In the prison industry, for instance, it is unclear whether private firms advocate incarceration to any significant extent, but public guard unions are known to do so …

Copyright's Empire: Why The Law Matters , Alina Ng

ExpressO

Two separate and distinct movements have colonized research in the field of intellectual property. Law and economics has deepened our understanding of the justification for granting monopoly rights over intellectual property. In recent years, economic theories have been used to support the growth of the commons – the free environment, where intellectual property plays little role in generating new creative works and innovation. The second movement is law and technology that has sought to increase understanding of intellectual property through the exploration of how technologies either provide freedoms or impose limitations to how creative works and innovation are created and …

The Group Dynamics Theory Of Executive Compensation, Michael B. Dorff

ExpressO

The corporate governance debate has focused recently on executive compensation. While defenders of the status quo assert that CEO compensation – and corporate governance generally -- is efficient, critics contend that boards have been captured by powerful CEOs who demand excessive pay unconditioned on their performance. Both sides argue that the evidence garnered from CEO compensation justifies their positions on legal reform of corporate governance as a whole. Defenders of the status quo argue that the system works well as is, as demonstrated by the enormous success of U.S. corporations. Critics concerned about managerial power propose reforms that will increase …

Patent Reform And Differential Impact, Matthew J. Sag, Kurt Rohde

ExpressO

This article presents a new method of analyzing patent reform proposals through the use of differential impact analysis.

Congressional efforts to address the crisis of confidence in the U.S. patent system have failed up to the present day. If Congress is to have any hope of passing much needed legislative reform to the Patent Act, the supporters of patent reform will have to unite behind a streamlined set of proposals that directly address the most pressing and unambiguous defects of the current patent system. To that end, we have proposed applying a test of differential impact to enable Congress to …

Public Services Meet Private Law, Michael I. Krauss

ExpressO

Public services are provided at various levels, and for various reasons, by governments to corporate and private citizens. Recently, an important movement in tort theory has sought to allow governments to recoup the cost of public services as tort damages from wrongdoers, especially from wrongdoers of the corporate variety. Much of the latest thrust in tort law, which consists of attorneys-general's suits against corporations, relies implicitly on a challenge to the common law's "free public services doctrine."

Recently, scholarship emanating largely from plaintiff-oriented sources has sought to appeal to free-market and law-and-economics scholars (who are often defense-oriented) by emphasizing the …

Tort Reform, Innovation, And Playground Design, Benjamin H. Barton

Scholarly Works

This essay directly confronts a key claim underlying calls for tort reform: that current product liability law negatively impacts innovation. It begins by outlining the current state of the product liability/innovation debate, and details the arguments and empirical evidence for and against a negative correlation. The essay then argues that when confronted by potential product liability entrepreneurial companies do not simply patch failed products, they fully rethink and redesign them. As such, product liability can actually spur innovation. The essay also indulges in a discussion of the economist Joseph Schumpeter's entrepreneurial mindset and a Calabresian argument that manufacturers are probably …

Tort Reform, Innovation, And Playground Design, Benjamin Barton

College of Law Faculty Scholarship

This essay directly confronts a key claim underlying calls for tort reform: that current product liability law negatively impacts innovation. It begins by outlining the current state of the product liability/innovation debate, and details the arguments and empirical evidence for and against a negative correlation. The essay then argues that when confronted by potential product liability entrepreneurial companies do not simply patch failed products, they fully rethink and redesign them. As such, product liability can actually spur innovation. The essay also indulges in a discussion of the economist Joseph Schumpeter's entrepreneurial mindset and a Calabresian argument that manufacturers are probably …

The Marginal Incentive Of Insider Trading: An Economic Reinterpretation Of The Case Law, Kristoffel R. Grechenig

ExpressO

Commentators on insider trading are divided into two camps, one in favor of regulation, the other in favor of deregulation. The arguments for the two positions are manifold but not irreconcilable. I show that important gains to social welfare come with insider trading on negative information (sales), whereas losses often result from the use of positive information (purchases). Thus, I look at a regulation that allows insiders to use negative but not positive non-public information. Because positive information will be disclosed much sooner than negative information, the marginal incentive (and marginal gain to social welfare, respectively) of insider trading as …

Beyond Abstraction, The Law And Economics Of Copyright Scope And Doctrinal Efficiency, Matthew J. Sag

ExpressO

Uncertainty as to the optimum extent of protection has generally limited the capacity of law and economics to translate economic theory into coherent doctrinal recommendations in the realm of copyright. This article explores the relationship between copyright scope, doctrinal efficiency and welfare from a theoretical perspective to develop a framework for evaluating specific doctrinal recommendations in copyright law. The usefulness of applying this framework in either rejecting or improving doctrinal recommendations is illustrated with reference to the predominant law and economics theories of fair use.

Are We Unnecessarily Serving Up Civil Liberties On A Patriot Platter?, Kyle A. Clark

ExpressO

This paper seeks to identify the general cognitive biases and overall measurement errors inherent in recent studies seeking to measure the effects of terrorism. Such biases lead to unprincipled conclusions founded upon incomplete information. These problems are exacerbated by inaccurate measures of the true impact of terrorism on the economy, the human psyche, policy-making and the world community. Such measurement errors severely diminish the probative value of the studies and lead to merely speculative conclusions. The goal of this paper is to shed light on these inaccurate conclusions in the hope that future legislation and practices aimed at curbing terrorism …

Explanation, Human Nature, And Tort Theory, Jeffery L. Johnson

ExpressO

The article argues that, as they are usually stated, corrective justice theories of torts and economic efficiency theories fail to contradict one another. Thus, although the literature typically sees these approaches as doing conceptual battle, it takes a good deal of philosophical analysis to discover a theoretical framework from which to assess one perspective as superior to the other. Indeed, in many cases the corrective justice scholar appears to be talking past the economic lawyer, and vice versa.

The article then goes on to suggest that the one perspective from which we can see a genuine conflict between the explanations …

“One For All: The Problem Of Uniformity Cost In Intellectual Property Law.” American University Law Review 55, No.4 (May 2006): 845-900., Michael W. Carroll

American University Law Review

Intellectual property law protects the owner of each patented invention or copyrighted work of authorship with a largely uniform set of exclusive rights. In the modern context, it is clear that innovators' needs for intellectual property protection vary substantially across industries and among types of innovation. Applying a socially costly, uniform solution to problems of differing magnitudes means that the law necessarily imposes uniformity cost by underprotecting those who invest in certain costly innovations and overprotecting those with low innovation costs or access to alternative appropriability mechanisms. This Article argues that reducing uniformity cost is the central problem for intellectual …

The Substantive Politics Of Formal Corporate Power, Martha T. Mccluskey

Buffalo Law Review

Corporations increasingly dominate the U.S. civil justice system, as Marc Galanter explains in his recent article, Planet of the APs: Reflections on the Scale of Law and its Users, 53 Buffalo L. Rev. 1369 (2006). My article builds on Galanter's discussion of corporate legal power by subjecting it to a critical legal perspective. In the conventional legal framework, corporations' privileged position appears to be an intractable puzzle, not an urgent injustice. That is because corporate power seems to be the generally necessary byproduct of a generally benign form (large, complex, legalistic organizations) or of generally benign, widely-shared normative principles (economic …

Responsabilidad Por Daños Al Medio Ambiente Y Por Contaminación De Suelos: Problemas De Relación, Fernando Gómez, María Àngels Gili Saldaña

Fernando Gómez Pomar

El Anteproyecto de Ley de Responsabilidad Medioambiental, de 17.1.2006, ha incluido en su ámbito de aplicación materias que se encuentran sujetas, a su vez, a las reglas de responsabilidad civil general para los daños causados a bienes o intereses ajenos (arts. 1902 y ss. Código Civil), así como a las disposiciones sobre responsabilidad por limpieza y recuperación que resultan de la declaración de un suelo como contaminado (arts. 27 y ss. Ley 10/1998, de 21 de abril, de Residuos). En este trabajo se apuntan los problemas de interrelación entre los regímenes de responsabilidad previstos por estas normas y se analizan, …

Compensation After Termination Of Long-Term Distribution Contracts: An Economic Perspective Of Eu Law, Fernando Gómez

Fernando Gómez Pomar

Termination and compensation after termination are two of the most relevant –albeit not the only ones- dimensions of the long-term contracts through which distribution chains are formed and structured. The EC rules that establish a regime of compensation after termination are studied in this paper, in particular, the Commercial Agents Directive. Then, compensation after termination is analysed from the economic perspective, highlighting the importance of the open-ended nature of a relationship, termination as a disciplining mechanism against non-verifiable breach of distribution contracts, the problem of specific investments and the covenants not to compete. The contrast of the examined EC rules …

The Evolution Of Efficiency Principle From Utilitarianism To Wealth Maximization, Qi Zhou

qi zhou

No abstract provided.

Prisons Of The Mind: Social Value And Economic Inefficiency In The Criminal Justice Response To Mental Illness, Amanda C. Pustilnik

Faculty Scholarship

Can constructs of social meaning lead to actual criminal confinement? Can the intangible value ascribed to the maintenance of certain social norms lead to radically inefficient choices about resource allocation? The disproportionate criminal confinement of people with severe mental illnesses relative to non-mentally ill individuals suggests that social meanings related to mental illness can create legal and physical walls around this disfavored group. Responding to the non-violent mentally ill principally through the criminal system imposes at least 6 billion dollars in costs annually on the public, above any offsetting public safety and deterrence benefits, and imposes terrible human costs on …

The Elasticity Of Contract, Martha M. Ertman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Intrinsic Value Of Obeying A Law: Economic Analysis Of The Internal Viewpoint, Robert Cooter

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Penalty Defaults In Family Law: The Case Of Child Custody, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

This paper considers whether an amendment to state divorce laws that strengthens its joint custody preference operates as a traditional default rule, specifying what most divorcing couples would choose or as a penalty default rule the parties will attempt to contract around.

While the Oregon statutes that frame our discussion here, like most state laws, do not state an explicit preference for joint custody, shared custody is certainly encouraged by Section 107.179, which refers cases in which the parties cannot agree on joint custody to mediation and by Section 107.105, which requires the court to consider awarding custody jointly. In …

Duty In Tort Law: An Economic Approach, Keith N. Hylton

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

A New Tool For Analyzing Intellectual Property, Stephen M. Mcjohn

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

A New Economics Of Trademarks, David W. Barnes

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

Conventional wisdom holds that trademarks are nothing like other intellectual property. Copyright and patent law are theoretically based in public goods theory and are designed to promote creation and disclosure of original expressions and novel, useful innovations. By contrast, trademarks are private goods and trademark law is designed to promote trade and encourage competition.

This article challenges conventional wisdom by demonstrating that trademarks are a type of public good that contributes to the public stock of useful ideas just as patented and copyrighted works do. This economic perspective suggests, again contrary to conventional trademark theory, that competitive markets fail to …

An Assessment Of Cross-National Regulatory Burden Comparisons, Thomas D. Hopkins

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The Article compares several rankings systems for national regulatory compliance costs. It finds the ranking systems are limited to differentiating between those countries least burdened by regulation from those most burdened by regulation. It concludes the rankings could be an important tool for deciding which countries would be the most promising for regulatory burden reduction initiatives.

Chart Accompanying: An Assessment Of Cross-National Regulatory Burden Comparisons, Thomas D. Hopkins

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The Article compares several rankings systems for national regulatory compliance costs. It finds the ranking systems are limited to differentiating between those countries least burdened by regulation from those most burdened by regulation. It concludes the rankings could be an important tool for deciding which countries would be the most promising for regulatory burden reduction initiatives.

Lost In Translation: The Economic Analysis Of Law In The United States And Europe, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, Carmen L. Brun

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In this Essay, we examine the reasons why the economic analysis of law has not flourished in European countries as it has in the United States. In particular, we focus on three European countries-the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. We argue that differences in culture, the legal system, and the academy have led to differing degrees of success of the law and economics movement in each country. We speculate that, although there is currently less interest in the economic analysis of the law in Europe than in the United States, European interest could dramatically increase if scholars adopt more communitarian …

One For All: The Problem Of Uniformity Cost In Intellectual Property Law, Michael W. Carroll

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Intellectual property law protects the owner of each patented invention or copyrighted work of authorship with a largely uniform set of exclusive rights. In the modern context, it is clear that innovators' needs for intellectual property protection vary substantially across industries and among types of innovation. Applying a socially costly, uniform solution to problems of differing magnitudes means that the law necessarily imposes uniformity cost by underprotecting those who invest in certain costly innovations and overprotecting those with low innovation costs or access to alternative appropriability mechanisms.

This Article argues that reducing uniformity cost is the central problem for intellectual …

Improving Criminal Jury Decision Making After The Blakely Revolution, J. J. Prescott, Sonja B. Starr

Articles

The shift in sentencing fact-finding responsibility triggered in many states by Blakely v. Washington may dramatically change the complexity and type of questions that juries will be required to answer. Among the most important challenges confronting legislatures now debating the future of their sentencing regimes is whether juries are prepared to handle this new responsibility effectively - and, if not, what can be done about it. Yet neither scholars addressing the impact of Blakely nor advocates of jury reform have seriously explored these questions. Nonetheless, a number of limitations on juror decision making seriously threaten the accuracy of verdicts in …