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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Economics Of Canadian National Railway V. Norsk Pacific Steamship (The Jervis Crown), David S. Cohen
The Economics Of Canadian National Railway V. Norsk Pacific Steamship (The Jervis Crown), David S. Cohen
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
Economic analysis of legal doctrine assumes, indeed its relevance largely depends upon the assumption, that judicial decisions will have an instrumental impact on the future behaviour of firms and individuals who are not themselves parties to the litigation which resulted in the specific doctrinal development being analysed. In other words, economic analysis assumes that the decisions of courts - and particularly, for what should be obvious reasons, the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada - have a direct influence upon the manner in which non-litigants will choose to order their affairs following that decision. Thus, the focus of a …
Procedural Fairness And Incentive Programs: Reflections On The Environmental Choice Program, David S. Cohen
Procedural Fairness And Incentive Programs: Reflections On The Environmental Choice Program, David S. Cohen
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
This paper explores the application of procedural fairness to the federal government’s Environmental Choice Program’s decision-making processes. While Canadian courts have traditionally required public bureaucrats to act “fairly” when implementing command models of regulation, they have only recently been confronted with demands that regulators implementing economic incentive programs also act in accordance with procedural fairness norms.
Judicial Choice And Disparities Between Measures Of Economic Values, David S. Cohen
Judicial Choice And Disparities Between Measures Of Economic Values, David S. Cohen
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
An important idea, which characterizes law in society, is a reluctance to move from the status quo. In general, one can argue that legal institutions and legal doctrine are not engaged in the redistribution of wealth from one party to another. This paper explores a possible explanation for that principle. The authors' research suggests that, across a wide range of entitlements and in a variety of contexts, individuals value losses more than foregone gains. The paper argues, as a matter of efficiency, that law and social policy might have developed in a manner consistent with this valuation disparity. Furthermore, this …
Government Liability For Economic Losses: The Case Of Regulatory Failure, David S. Cohen
Government Liability For Economic Losses: The Case Of Regulatory Failure, David S. Cohen
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
Compensation claims against provincial and federal governments are largely a product of the second half of the 20th century. The initial surge of cases after the enactment of the federal Crown Liability Act in 1953--mirrored also in developments at the provincial level-- were typically "private" tort claims. Indeed a significant percentage of claims against the federal government continue to be nothing more than automobile accident, occupier liability claims and lawsuits arising out of similar relatively minor bureaucratic error. Recently, however, as a result of both the imagination of litigators and the growth of the regulatory state, claims against governments have …
The Regulation Of Green Advertising: The State, The Market And The Environmental Good, David S. Cohen
The Regulation Of Green Advertising: The State, The Market And The Environmental Good, David S. Cohen
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
In this paper I explore this most recent development in regulatory policy and, in particular, the role government plays when it chooses to use private markets (consumer, institutional and corporate) as regulatory instruments to produce and allocate environmental benefits. The privatization of environmental regulation by employing markets to deliver environmental benefits does not involve the implementation of public policy through executive or legislative action. Rather, it is achieved through a public choice to privatize the delivery of environmental regulation by permitting or encouraging decentralized economic power to respond to consumer demands for environmental quality.
Regulating Regulators: The Legal Environment Of The State, David S. Cohen
Regulating Regulators: The Legal Environment Of The State, David S. Cohen
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
In this paper I focus on the ability of tort law to reduce primary costs, or losses associated with the number and seriousness of accidents. In one sense I will be analysing the state as if it were a private firm in which losses suffered by private individuals and firms are externalities. Several years ago Mark Spitzer wrote a paper on this topic in which he posited several models of state activity and analysed the incentive effects of liability rules in each case. In my view Spitzer's general conclusion - the rule which may be synthesized from all of the …