Law Commons^™

Regulatory Abdication In Practice, Cary Coglianese

All Faculty Scholarship

“Meta-regulation” refers to deliberate efforts to induce private firms to create their own internal regulations—a regulatory strategy sometimes referred to as “management-based regulation” or even “regulation of self-regulation.” Meta-regulation is often presented as a flexible alternative to traditional “command-and-control” regulation. But does meta-regulation actually work? In her recent book, Meta-Regulation in Practice: Beyond Normative Views of Morality and Rationality, Fiona Simon purports to offer a critique of meta-regulation based on an extended case study of the often-feckless process of electricity regulatory reform undertaken in Australia in the early part of this century. Yet neither Simon’s case study nor her book …

Motivations For Pursuing A Career In Law Enforcement: An Analysis Of A Local Law Enforcement Agency, Mark W. Thomas

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Current law enforcement agencies are facing increasing pressure to hire more female and minority applicants. In addition to this, many agencies may be struggling to hire sufficient numbers of qualified candidates in general. This has created a need for understanding the individual factors that may motivate specific types of individuals towards a career in law enforcement. The current study assesses these motivations in a sample of currently employed law enforcement officers, current students enrolled in criminal justice programs, and undergraduate students unaffiliated with a law enforcement career. These motivations are then examined by demographic categories to explore the correlation between …

How Liability Insurers Protect Patients And Improve Safety, Tom Baker, Charles Silver

All Faculty Scholarship

Forty years after the publication of the first systematic study of adverse medical events, there is greater access to information about adverse medical events and increasingly widespread acceptance of the view that patient safety requires more than vigilance by well-intentioned medical professionals. In this essay, we describe some of the ways that medical liability insurance organizations contributed to this transformation, and we catalog the roles that those organizations play in promoting patient safety today. Whether liability insurance in fact discourages providers from improving safety or encourages them to protect patients from avoidable harms is an empirical question that a survey …

Multinational Firms And Tax Havens, Anna Gumpert, James R. Hines Jr., Monika Schnitzer

Articles

Multinational firms with operations in high-tax countries can benefit the most from reallocating taxable income to tax havens, though this is sufficiently difficult and costly that only 20.4% of German multinational firms have any tax haven affiliates. Among German manufacturing firms, a 1 percentage point higher foreign tax rate is associated with a 2.3% greater likelihood of owning a tax haven affiliate. This is consistent with tax avoidance incentives and contrasts with earlier evidence for U.S. firms. The relationship is less strong for firms in service industries, possibly reflecting the difficulty of reallocating taxable service income.

Motivating Without Mandates: The Role Of Voluntary Programs In Environmental Governance, Cary Coglianese, Jennifer Nash

All Faculty Scholarship

For the last several decades, governments around the world have tried to use so-called voluntary programs to motivate private firms to act proactively to protect the environment. Unlike conventional environmental regulation, voluntary programs offer businesses flexibility to adopt cost-effective measures to reduce environmental impacts. Rather than prodding firms to act through threats of enforcement, they aim to entice firms to move forward by offering various kinds of positive incentives, ranging from public recognition to limited forms of regulatory relief. Despite the theoretical appeal of voluntary programs, their proper role in government’s environmental toolkit depends on the empirical evidence of how …

Everything’S Bigger In Texas: Except The Medmal Settlements, Tom Baker, Eric Helland, Jonathan Klick

All Faculty Scholarship

Recent work using Texas closed claim data finds that physicians are rarely required to use personal assets in medical malpractice settlements even when plaintiffs secure judgments above the physician's insurance limits. In equilibrium, this should lead physicians to purchase less insurance. Qualitative research on the behavior of plaintiffs suggests that there is a norm under which plaintiffs agree not to pursue personal assets as long as defendants are not grossly underinsured. This norm operates as a soft constraint on physicians. All other things equal, while physicians want to lower their coverage, they do not want to violate the norm and …

Cguppi: Scoring Incentives To Engage In Parallel Accommodating Conduct, Serge Moresi, David Reitman, Steven C. Salop, Yianis Sarafidis

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

We propose an index for scoring coordination incentives, which we call the “coordination GUPPI” or cGUPPI. While the cGUPPI can be applied to a wide range of coordinated effects concerns, it is particularly relevant for gauging concerns of parallel accommodating conduct (PAC), a concept that received due prominence in the 2010 U.S. Horizontal Merger Guidelines. PAC is a type of coordinated conduct whereby a firm raises price with the expectation—but without any prior agreement—that one or more other firms will follow and match the price increase. The cGUPPI is the highest uniform price increase that all the would-be coordinating firms …

Slides: Perspectives On Water Management In Arizona, Kathy Jacobs

Innovations in Managing Western Water: New Approaches for Balancing Environmental, Social and Economic Outcomes (Martz Summer Conference, June 11-12)

Presenter: Kathy Jacobs, Director, Center for Climate Adaptation Science and Solutions (CCASS), Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science, University of Arizona

25 slides

Slides: Moffat Collection System Project, Travis Bray

Innovations in Managing Western Water: New Approaches for Balancing Environmental, Social and Economic Outcomes (Martz Summer Conference, June 11-12)

Presenter: Travis Bray, Project Manager, Moffat Collection System Project, Denver Water

45 slides

Slides: Practicing Sustainability In Natural Resource Industries, Gary D. Libecap

Natural Resource Industries and the Sustainability Challenge (Martz Winter Symposium, February 27-28)

Presenter: Gary D. Libecap, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and Economics Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

10 slides

Can We Learn Anything About Pleading Changes From Existing Data?, Jonah B. Gelbach

All Faculty Scholarship

In light of the gateway role that the pleading standard can play in our civil litigation system, measuring the empirical effects of pleading policy changes embodied in the Supreme Court's controversial Twombly and Iqbal cases is important. In my earlier paper, Locking the Doors to Discovery, I argued that in doing so, special care is required in formulating the object of empirical study. Taking party behavior seriously, as Locking the Doors does, leads to empirical results suggesting that Twombly and Iqbal have had substantial effects among cases that face Rule 12(b)(6) motions post-Iqbal. This paper responds to …

Sensible Bytes: States Need A New Approach To Justify Their Recruitment Of Internet Data Centers, Michael F. Kaestner

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Charting A New Course For The Colorado River: A Summary Of Guiding Principles, Colorado River Research Group

Books, Reports, and Studies

[4] p. : color illustrations ; 28 cm.

The First Step In Repairing The Colorado River’S Broken Water Budget: Summary Report, Colorado River Research Group

Books, Reports, and Studies

4 p. : color illustration and chart ; 28 cm.

The First Step In Repairing The Colorado River’S Water Budget: Technical Report, Colorado River Research Group

Books, Reports, and Studies

22 p. : charts (some color) ; 28 cm.

Contents: Introduction -- Diagnosing the problem -- Plans to increase use of basin water: Overview; Upper basin states: Colorado; New Mexico; Utah; Wyoming; Lower basin states: Arizona; California; Nevada; Tribal demands -- Reconciling fantasy with reality: Upper basin; Lower basin -- Conclusion -- Literature cited.

Tables and figures: Declining reservoir storage on the Colorado River -- Average supplies versus demands on the Colorado River mainstem -- Relationship between Lake Powell storage and Lee Ferry virgin flows -- Relationship between Lake Powell releases and Lake Mead storage -- Tribal water rights/demands: upper …

"Nudging" Better Lawyer Behavior: Using Default Rules And Incentives To Change Behavior In Law Firms, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

This article examines how incentives in law firms can affect lawyer behavior and suggests some possible changes to incentive structures and default rules that might improve the ethical behavior of lawyers.

In the changing landscape of law practice — where law firm profits are threatened by such changes as increased pressure from clients to economize and the concomitant opportunities for clients to shop around for the most efficient lawyers — are there ways to change how things are done in law firms so that firms can provide more efficient and ethical service? This article suggests that an understanding of cognitive …

Materials For Presentation: Water Banks: Voluntary And Flexible Water Supplies For The Colorado River's Uncertain Future [Outline], Robert Wigington

Navigating the Future of the Colorado River (Martz Summer Conference, June 8-10)

4 pages.

"Robert Wigington, The Nature Conservancy"

Report Surveys Colorado River Basin Leaders: Collaborative Approaches To Dwindling Supplies Are Highlighted, Sarah Bates, University Of Montana Missoula. Center For Natural Resources And Environmental Policy

Navigating the Future of the Colorado River (Martz Summer Conference, June 8-10)

4 pages.

Press release "April 14, 2011"

"Executive Summary April 2011" of report, Thinking Like a River Basin: Leaders' Perspectives on Options and Opportunities in Colorado River Management

Full report available at:

http://www.carpediemwest.org/wp-content/uploads/Thinking_Like_A_River_Basin_8-20-13.pdf

Slides: Finding Flows: Fish Still Need Water Everyday, Melinda Kassen

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

Presenter: Melinda Kassen, Director of the Western Water Project, Trout Unlimited

12 slides

Flexible Work Arrangements (Fwas): Possible Public Policy Approaches, Workplace Flexibility 2010, Georgetown University Law Center

Memos and Fact Sheets

There is a range of ways in which public policy can help workplace flexibility become a norm in the American workplace. Indeed, the various bills introduced in the 110th Congress to increase access to FWAs, one component of workplace flexibility, represent a wide range of public policy approaches.

This document categorizes and characterizes these public policy approaches to help clarify the options that might be pursued to increase access to FWAs.

Slides: Beyond Rethinking: Redoing Western Water Law, Janet Neuman

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Professor Janet Neuman, Lewis & Clark Law School

17 slides

Varieties Of Employee Ownership: Some Unintended Consequences Of Corporate Law And Labor Law, Aditi Bagchi

All Faculty Scholarship

Theories of employee ownership implicitly assume that its essential features are the same in all countries. In fact, employee ownership varies considerably across institutional environments. In this paper, I compare its development in the United States, Germany, and Sweden to show that the institutional background - in particular, the existing bodies of corporate and labor law - against which a program of employee ownership arises determines its course. Background institutions determine the cost of worker control over management, the cost of collective decision-making, and the expected gains from risk-bearing. Those consequences of corporate and labor law in turn determine whether …

Flexible Work Arrangements: A Definition And Examples, Workplace Flexibility 2010, Georgetown University Law Center

Memos and Fact Sheets

Workplace Flexibility 2010 defines a “flexible work arrangement” (FWA) as any one of a spectrum of work structures that alters the time and/or place that work gets done on a regular basis. A flexible work arrangement includes:

1. flexibility in the scheduling of hours worked, such as alternative work schedules (e.g., flex time and compressed workweeks), and arrangements regarding shift and break schedules;

2. flexibility in the amount of hours worked, such as part time work and job shares; and

3. flexibility in the place of work, such as working at home or at a satellite location.

Our research indicates …

Agenda: Endangered Species Act Congressional Field Tour, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Endangered Species Act Congressional Field Tour (August 17-19)

The Center sponsored its third annual field tour for staff members of the United States Congress, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and the Colorado state legislature.

Conference Summary: Water, Climate And Uncertainty: Implications For Western Water Law, Policy, And Management, Steve Bailey

Water, Climate and Uncertainty: Implications for Western Water Law, Policy, and Management (Summer Conference, June 11-13)

7 pages.

"Steve Bailey, National Center for Atmospheric Research"

The Long Time Scales Of Human-Caused Climate Warming: Further Challenges For The Global Policy Process, Jerry D. Mahlman

Water, Climate and Uncertainty: Implications for Western Water Law, Policy, and Management (Summer Conference, June 11-13)

28 pages.

"Jerry D. Mahlman, Senior Research Fellow, National Center for Atmospheric Research"

"Presented at the Pew Center Workshop on The Timing of Climate Change Policies, The Westin Grand Hotel, Washington, DC, October 10-12, 2001"

"Cite As: Mahlman, J.D. 2001. The Long Time Scales of Human-Caused Climate Warming: Further Challenges for the Global Policy Process. Pew Center Workshop on the Timing of Climate Change Policies, October 10-12, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Arlington, VA."

Water Gets The Big Squeeze: The Hidden Cost Of Urban Growth [Abstract], Bart Miller

Allocating and Managing Water for a Sustainable Future: Lessons from Around the World (Summer Conference, June 11-14)

2 pages.

The Clean Water Action Plan, Sylvia V. Baca

Strategies in Western Water Law and Policy: Courts, Coercion and Collaboration (Summer Conference, June 8-11)

3 pages.

Essential Elements Of Amendments To The Endangered Species Act, John Harja

Biodiversity Protection: Implementation and Reform of the Endangered Species Act (Summer Conference, June 9-12)

14 pages.

Watershed Based Efforts: The Applegate Partnership Of Southwest Oregon, Jack Shipley

Challenging Federal Ownership and Management: Public Lands and Public Benefits (October 11-13)

15 pages.