Law Commons^™

The Moral Hazard Problem With Privatization Of Public Enforcement: The Case Of Pharmaceutical Fraud, Dayna Bowen Matthew

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article takes a law and economics approach to exploring some of the costs that arise when governments rely on private enforcement to accomplish the goals of public law. The analysis focuses on qui tam enforcement under the Civil False Claims Act, because a remarkable body of empirical data demonstrates the expansive role private qui tam relators are playing in enforcing Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse laws. The Article further focuses on the application of these laws to the pharmaceutical industry. This focus is enlightening because the Government, as well as private enforcers, have recently targeted this industry so …

Introduction: Private Ordering In A Globalizing World: Still Searching For The Basics Of Contract, Peer Zumbansen

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Governing Contracts - Public and Private Perspectives, Symposium. Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, November 9-10, 2006

Mercenaries And Other Ways Of Breaking The Law: Why Our Blood Should Boil, Judith Blau

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Among the many consequences of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the absence of investigative journalism and critical reflection in the U.S. is, perhaps, the most troubling; though we are now seeing a reversal of this trend. Jeremy Scahill has been one of the brightest and best examples of this reversal, relentlessly pursuing a trail of wrongdoing involving the U.S. government and private corporations.

Can The Next American President Switch The Tracks?, Harry Kreisler

Human Rights & Human Welfare

For decades the Washington mantra has been privatization. As Secretary of Defense in Bush 41’s administration and as CEO of Haliburton, Dick Cheney was influential in the application of this idea to defense policy. Now as Vice President of the United States, he and his coterie of followers have taken the idea to a new level. According to Jeremy Scahill, the United States has reached a tipping point in waging the Iraq war, with dire consequences for defense policy, democratic accountability, and the global perception of who we are and what we stand for.

July Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Outsourcing the War ” by Jeremy Schaill. The Nation. May 28, 2007.

Private Military Industry And The Laws Of War, Mahmood Monshipouri

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The “war on terrorism,” according to Jeremy Scahill, has led to the most privatized war in the history of the United States of America: the war in Iraq, waged partially by private security contractors who are, for the most part, accountable to no higher legal-political authority. This brings us to an obvious question: Is this type of warfare an imperative part of counterterrorism?

Rooting The Privatization Of War In A Broader Political Context, Ali Wyne

Human Rights & Human Welfare

On the issue of military outsourcing, I think that it would be valuable to place Jeremy Scahill’s research and critique in a broader context.

Private Rights And Collective Governance: A Functional Approach To Natural Resources Law, Eric T. Freyfogle

The Future of Natural Resources Law and Policy (Summer Conference, June 6-8)

4 pages.

"Eric T. Freyfogle, Max L. Rowe Professor of Law, University of Illinois College of Law"

The Impact Of Privatization On Economic Growth And Income Inequality In Developing Countries, Samuel Adams

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

In the 1960s and 1970s academicians, economists and politicians favored state ownership over private ownership in the production and provision of goods and services. By the end of the 1980s, however, there was a reversal of public policy from state domination of the production and provision of goods and services to private ownership and operation. This was due in part to what the World Bank referred to as "state failure”, which was characterized by inefficient service delivery, unprofitable SOEs, high government debt, and stagnant economic growth rates. Accordingly, privatization caught on in many countries as a policy tool to foster …

Privatization And The Effectiveness Of Monitoring Agencies, Alexander Volokh

Alexander Volokh

The privatization literature depicts the choice whether to contract out as a tradeoff between excessive private investment in quality-reducing cost saving and inadequate public investment in cost-increasing quality improvement, under circumstances where neither the amount of investment nor the cost or quality outcomes are contractible. This paper shows that a monitoring regime, which can verify the benefit of the service at a cost, can bring the investment levels of the private contractor closer to the optimum, while it may not be able to improve the performance of the public sector. Monitors can be captured, and the possibility of capture may …

Beyond Drug Coverage: The Cumulative Effect Of Privatization Reforms In The Medicare Modernization Act, Robert I. Field, Richard G. Stefanacci

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

The Yukos Money Laundering Case: A Never-Ending Story, Dmitry Gololobov

Michigan Journal of International Law

The Yukos case has unveiled the possible dangers of money laundering legislation in the hands of governments with transitional economies and weak democratic traditions. Even if the anti-money laundering laws of the country comply with international pronouncements to the letter, there are still a number of ways the laws could be used for the sole purpose of persecuting political opponents. In the Yukos case, the money laundering charges were interrelated with the charges of corporate tax evasion, which, taken separately, in Russia, represent a rather weak tool for suppressing the political opponents, but taken together they are perfect for the …

Blackwater And The Privatization Of Immigration Control, Robert E. Koulish

Robert E. Koulish

This paper documents the privatization of immigration control being led by the Blacwater Inc. invasion of the border. Preety much the same time that Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki said he would expel Backwater from Iraw, Salon Magazine documented that Blackwater was headed to the US-Mexico Border. I argue that Blackwater symbolizes the privatization of immigration control as well as a larger integration of immigration control with what Klein refers to as a post 9/11 neo-liberal economic shock doctrine. The paper focuses on how the Courts have participated in in the phenomenon through "non-decision," with a focus on the patriot act, …

Le Garanzie Reali Al Servizio Dello Stato, Mauro Bussani

Mauro Bussani

In the last decades, many Western countries have undergone economy-wide reforms generally aimed to reduce the role of the State in the economy, by limiting public ownership of land and infrastructures. Privatization programs concerning States’ immovables have taken many forms, and have often been coupled with the alleged benefits of the securitization of immovable property-related assets. In many cases, however, these programs have been carried out with no or little awareness of the variety of instruments that the law of security rights makes available to the privatizing State. The comparative survey conducted in this paper provides an overview of the …

Privatization And The Human Right To Water: Challenges For The New Century, Melina Williams

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Note considers implications for the human fight to water in the context of the trend toward privatization of water supplies. Part II examines the legal bases of the right to water, and Part III discusses the potential obligations that arise from it. Part IV then looks at the interaction between the fight to water and arrangements to privatize water supplies. This Note posits that human rights law does not simply support or oppose privatization of water supplies and services. Rather, bringing a human rights perspective to the problem of providing water to the world's population both clarifies the minimum …

The Myth Of "Privatization", Christopher L. Sagers

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The very large body of recent scholarship on the phenomenon of American 'privatization', which means roughly the performance of some seemingly public function through a non-state instrumentality, and which is purportedly very new and very important, suffers from certain problems. Not least of these is that 'privatization' appears not to exist. Or, more accurately, this phenomenon, which is said both to be important in itself and the chief symptom of the changing new order of governance under which we now live, is in fact a thin sliver of relevant reality, at best. Indeed, privatizing talk takes as a given a …

The Tragedy Of The Commons And The Myth Of A Private Property Solution, Amy Sinden

University of Colorado Law Review

According to generally accepted wisdom of welfare economics, there are two potential solutions to the tragedy of the commons: 1) government regulation, or 2) privatization. Government regulation and privatization can usefully be distinguished from each other based on who answers the "how much" question. Under the former, government answers the "how much" question, and under the latter, the market answers it. When the U.S. environmental movement began in the 1970s, government regulation seemed the obvious choice. But in recent years, intellectual fashions have changed, and privatization has become the preferred solution. The privatization solution, however, is a myth that exists, …