Law Commons^™

The Shale Oil And Gas Revolution, Hydraulic Fracturing, And Water Contamination: A Regulatory Strategy, Thomas W. Merrill, David M. Schizer

Faculty Scholarship

The United States has surpassed Russia as the world's top natural gas producer, and according to the world's most respected energy forecaster, the U.S. will also overtake Saudi Arabia as the largest oil producer by 2020. This surge in U.S. oil and gas production would have seemed wildly improbable a decade ago. It flows from a revolution in U.S. oil and gas production. Energy companies have learned to tap previously inaccessible oil and gas in shale and other impermeable (or "tight") rock formations. To do so, they use "hydraulic fracturing" ("fracturing" or "fracking"), pumping fluid into shale at high pressure …

Getting Ahead Of The Curve: Supporting Adaptation To Long-Term Climate Change And Short-Term Climate Variability Alike, Alexis Saba, Michela Biasutti, Michael B. Gerrard, David B. Lobell

Faculty Scholarship

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been meeting since 1995, and in recent years, it has increasingly focused on facilitating and funding climate change adaptation in developing countries. Other sources of financing, from multilateral development banks to bilateral and multilateral agreements among countries, are also providing resources for adaptation. Simultaneously, climate scientists around the world are updating their forecasts on the nature of future climate change. This article seeks to examine the scope of funding available for climate change adaptation and how climate change forecasts are used to plan for and evaluate climate change adaptation. We …

Contract And Innovation: The Limited Role Of Generalist Courts In The Evolution Of Novel Contractual Forms, Ronald J. Gilson, Charles F. Sabel, Robert E. Scott

Faculty Scholarship

In developing a contractual response to changes in the economic environment, parties choose the method by which their innovation will be adapted to the particulars of their context. These choices are driven centrally by the thickness of the relevant market – the number of actors who see themselves as facing similar circumstances – and the uncertainty related to that market. In turn, the parties' choice of method will shape how generalist courts can best support the parties' innovation and the novel regimes they envision. In this Article, we argue that contractual innovation does not come to courts incrementally, but instead …

Shallow Signals, Bert I. Huang

Faculty Scholarship

Whether in dodging taxes, violating copyrights, misstating corporate earnings, or just jaywalking, we often follow the lead of others in our choices to obey or to flout the law. Seeing others act illegally, we gather that a rule is weakly enforced or that its penalty is not serious. But we may be imitating by mistake: what others are doing might not be illegal – for them.

Whenever the law quietly permits some actors to act in a way that is usually forbidden, copycat misconduct may be erroneously inspired by the false appearance that "others are doing it too." The use …

"With Untired Spirits And Formal Constancy": Berne Compatibility Of Formal Declaratory Measures To Enhance Copyright Title-Searching, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

Formalities are back in fashion. Their acolytes fall into two camps, reflecting their different objectives. For formalities, which we shall define as conditions on the existence or enforcement of copyright, can divest authors of their rights, or instead enhance authors' exploitation of their works by alerting their audiences to the authors' claims. For one camp, formalities' confiscatory consequences, once perceived as barbaric, are to be celebrated. The more works from their authors' rights untimely ripped, cast into the public domain, or amputated in their enforcement, the better. Formalities can supply the cure for all copyright's ills, from over-inclusive subject matter, …