Law and Economics Commons^™

Agenda: Water And Growth In The West, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center, The William And Flora Hewlett Foundation

Water and Growth in the West (Summer Conference, June 7-9)

1 v. (various pagings) : ill., maps ; 29 cm. + 1 CD-ROM (4 3/4 in.) + supplement (207 p. ; 29 x 24 cm.)

"Conference co-sponsor The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation."

Conference moderators included University of Colorado School of Law professors Gary C. Bryner, James N. Corbridge, Jr., David H. Getches, Douglas S. Kenney, Kathryn M. Mutz, Peter D. Nichols and Charles F. Wilkinson.

Accompanied by: CD-ROM (4 3/4 in.) and supplement (xiv, 140, [49] p.)

Includes bibliographical references

The event will cover a breadth of issues, including demographics and water-use trends, improved planning and efficient use, implementation …

Expressive Law And Oppressive Norms: A Comment On Richard Mcadams's "A Focal Point Theory Of Expressive Law", Amy L. Wax

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Normative Analysis Of New Financially Engineered Derivatives, Peter H. Huang

Publications

This Article analyzes whether the introduction of new derivative assets makes a society better or worse off. Because trading such non-redundant derivatives produces new distributions of income across time and over possible future contingencies, individuals can utilize such financial instruments to hedge risks not possible before the introduction of these assets. Thus, it may seem that new derivatives unambiguously benefit society. In fact, introducing sufficiently many new derivatives completes asset markets. Asset markets are complete if trading on them can attain every possible payoff pattern of wealth across time and over possible future contingencies. The first fundamental theorem of welfare …

Incentives To Settle Under Joint And Several Liability: An Empirical Analysis Of Superfund Litigation, Howard F. Chang, Hilary Sigman

All Faculty Scholarship

Congress may soon restrict joint and several liability for cleanup of contaminated sites under Superfund. We explore whether this change would discourage settlements and is therefore likely to increase the program 's already high litigation costs per site. Recent theoretical research by Kornhauser and Revesz finds that joint and several liability may either encourage or discourage settlement, depending on the correlation of outcomes at trial across defendants. We extend their two-defendant model to a richer framework with N defendants. This extension allows us to test the theoretical model empirically using data on Superfund litigation. We find that joint and several …

Complexity And Copyright In Contradiction, Michael J. Madison

Articles

The title of the article is a deliberate play on architect Robert Venturi's classic of post-modern architectural theory, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. The article analyzes metaphorical 'architectures' of copyright and cyberspace using architectural and land use theories developed for the physical world. It applies this analysis to copyright law through the lens of the First Amendment. I argue that the 'simplicity' of digital engineering is undermining desirable 'complexity' in legal and physical structures that regulate expressive works.

The Limits Of Behavioral Decision Theory In Legal Analysis: The Case Of Liquidated Damages, Robert A. Hillman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Discontent with the apparent tunnel vision of economic analysis of law's rational choice theory, legal scholars recently have turned with enthusiasm to "behavioral decision theory" (BDT) to enrich their understanding of how people make decisions and of the law's effect on human behavior. This article, for the first time, evaluates BDT's potential contribution to legal analysis by focusing on a single, important legal paradox: Despite contract law's freedom of contract paradigm, courts actively and enthusiastically police agreed damages provisions. Although the article finds an important place in legal analysis for this new discipline, the article raises and discusses several obstacles …