Law Commons^™

Limited Liability And The Known Unknown, Michael Simkovic

Duke Law Journal

Limited liability is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, limited lia-bility may help overcome investors’ risk aversion and facilitate capital formation and economic growth. On the other hand, limited liability is widely believed to contribute to excessive risk-taking and externaliza-tion of losses to the public. The externalization problem can be mitigated imperfectly through existing mechanisms such as regulation, mandatory insurance, and minimum capital requirements. These mechanisms would be more effective if information asymmetries between industry and poli-cymakers were reduced. Private businesses typically have better infor-mation about industry-specific risks than policymakers.

A charge for limited liability entities—resembling a corporate income …

Journal Staff

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Data Indicate Second Amendment Underenforcement, David Kopel

Duke Law Journal Online

No abstract provided.

What Does Puerto Rican Citizenship Mean For Puerto Rico’S Legal Status?, Joseph Blocher, Mitu Gulati

Duke Law Journal Online

No abstract provided.

Foreword: The Future Of Human Rights Scholarship, James Loeffler, Mila Versteeg

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Treaties And Human Rights: The Role Of Long-Term Trends, Adam S. Chilton, Eric A. Posner

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Through Rebel Eyes: Rebel Groups, Human Rights, And Humanitarian Law, Hyeran Jo, John Niehaus

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Coordinating Local Adaptive Strategies Through A Network-Based Approach, Xueqing Shan

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum

As the impacts of climate change become increasingly destructive and pervasive, climate adaptation has received greater political and academic attention. The traditional top-down model for mitigating climate change, however, is ill-suited to implementing effective adaptation strategies. Yet, local communities most impacted by climate change seldom have the tools and resources to develop effective adaptive strategies on their own. This note argues that a bottom-up, network-based approach could be a promising paradigm towards implementing effective adaptive strategies and empowering affected communities.

The Dynamic Impact Of Periodic Review On Women’S Rights, Cosette D. Creamer, Beth A. Simmons

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

The Heavens Are Always Fallen: A Neo-Constitutive Approach To Human Rights In Global Society, Geoffrey Dancy, Christopher Fariss

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Human Rights Measurement Controversy, Samuel Moyn

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Neoliberalism And Human Rights: The Brandt Commission And The Struggle For A New World, Umut Özsu

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

The Future Of International Human Rights Law—Lessons From Russia, Paul B. Stephan

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Beyond Physical Integrity, Kevin L. Cope, Charles Crabtree, Yonatan Lupu

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Journal Staff

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Smart Instrument Mixes To Promote Green Building, Yayun Shen, Michael Faure

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum

A smart mix of legal instruments is not new, but green building (GB) compliance is. As a way to environmental compliance in general, the mixing of instruments may also work to overcome the challenges facing GB compliance. The mix can be justified by the failings of government regulation, liability, and self-regulation. Therefore in theory, a smart mix of instruments makes sense, since each of the above instruments may be subject to imperfect information, private interests, the inaccuracy of measurement, and/or ineffectiveness. In practice, instrument mixes have been around in the U.S. GB laws. The theory and the U.S. case law …

Defining The Legal And Policy Framework To Stop The Dumping Of Environmentally Harmful Products, Stephen O. Andersen, Richard Ferris, Romina Picolotti, Durwood Zaelke, Suely Carvalho, Marco Gonzalez

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum

Environmental dumping is a practice historically associated with the export of hazardous product waste from a developed country for irresponsible and often illegal disposal in a developing country. Now, with the industrialization and globalization of China and other developing countries, environmental dumping can involve both developing and developed countries as origin and destination. This dumping can be especially harmful to attempts to control under the Montreal Protocol ozone-depleting and climate-forcing chemical substances and/or products requiring unnecessarily high energy consumption. While developing country Parties to the Montreal Protocol are allowed to delay their phasedown of climate-forcing and ozone-depleting hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) during …

Experience With Carbon Taxes And Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Systems, Erik Haites, Duan Maosheng, Kelly Sims Gallagher, Sharon Mascher, Easwaran Narassimhan, Kenneth R. Richards, Masayo Wakabayashi

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum

Carbon taxes and emissions trading systems (ETSs) to limit emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are increasingly common. At the end of 2015, 17 GHG ETSs were operational in 55 jurisdictions, and 18 jurisdictions collected at least one carbon tax. This paper assesses the performance of carbon taxes and ETSs with respect to environmental effectiveness (reduction of emissions regulated by the instrument), cost-effectiveness (marginal abatement cost), economic efficiency, public finance, and administrative issues.

Data on emissions subject to carbon taxes are rarely reported. We estimate the taxed emissions for 17 taxes in 12 jurisdictions from 1991 through the end of 2015. …

Journal Staff

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum

No abstract provided.

Journal Staff

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Leave Your Guns At Home: The Constitutionality Of A Prohibition On Carrying Firearms At Political Demonstrations, Luke Morgan

Duke Law Journal

Armed protest has long been a tool of American political groups. Neo-Nazis, socialists, fascists, antifascists, the Black Panthers, neo-Confederates, and others have all taken up arms not necessarily to do violence, but to do politics. But such protests always risk rending a violent hole in our social fabric. If war is politics by other means, armed protests erase the distinction.

This Note argues that the Constitution’s relevant guarantees of individual rights—the First and Second Amendments—do not include a constitutional right to armed protest.

With respect to free speech, it is unlikely that current doctrine would cover armed protests. But, considering …

Fixing Soft Dollars Is Not That Hard: A Consent And Reporting Framework For Regulating Client Commission Arrangements, Brendan Biffany

Duke Law Journal

Under soft dollar arrangements, investment advisers promise portfolio trades to participating brokers in exchange for investment research or other benefits. Recently, some academics, financial regulators, and practitioners have scrutinized such arrangements, arguing that they provide an avenue for advisers to unjustly enrich themselves at the expense of their clients. However, others defend soft dollar arrangements, seeing them as a mechanism for binding advisers to clients and increasing client returns.

A safe harbor currently protects advisers’ use of soft dollars, so long as certain minimum requirements are met. Critics argue that soft dollars should be banned outright, contending that advisers should …

Statutory Interpretation And The Rest Of The Iceberg: Divergences Between The Lower Federal Courts And The Supreme Court, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl

Duke Law Journal

This Article examines the methods of statutory interpretation used by the lower federal courts, especially the federal district courts, and compares those methods to the practices of the U.S. Supreme Court. This novel research reveals both similarities across courts and some striking differences. The research shows that some interpretive tools are highly overrepresented in the Supreme Court’s decisions, while other tools are much more prevalent in the lower courts. Differences in prevalence persist even after accounting for the selection effect that stems from the Supreme Court’s discretionary docket. Another finding—based on a study of 40 years of cases from all …

Intelligent Design, Christopher Buccafusco, Mark A. Lemley, Jonathan S. Masur

Duke Law Journal

When designers obtain exclusive intellectual property (IP) rights in the functional aspects of their creations, they can wield these rights to increase both the costs to their competitors and the prices that consumers must pay for their goods. IP rights and the costs they entail are justified when they create incentives for designers to invest in new, socially valuable designs. But the law must be wary of allowing rights to be misused. Accordingly, IP law has employed a series of doctrinal and costly screens to channel designs into the appropriate regime—copyright law, design patent law, or utility patent law—depending upon …

The Constitutional Politics Heller Launched, Michael C. Dorf

Duke Law Journal Online

No abstract provided.

You Can Lead A Horse To Water: Heller And The Future Of Second Amendment Scholarship, Eric Ruben, Joseph Blocher

Duke Law Journal Online

No abstract provided.

Collaborate Construction Of A New Legal Field, Ronald F. Wright, Mark A. Hall

Duke Law Journal Online

No abstract provided.

Comment On Ruben And Blocher: Too Damn Many Cases, And An Absent Supreme Court, Sanford Levinson

Duke Law Journal Online

No abstract provided.

Is The Second Amendment A Second-Class Right?, Adam M. Samaha, Roy Germano

Duke Law Journal Online

No abstract provided.

Romanticism Meets Realism In Second Amendment Adjudication, Darrell A. H. Miller

Duke Law Journal Online

No abstract provided.