Law Commons^™

Mixed Strategy Nash Equilibrium Predictions As A Means Of Organizing Behavior In Posted-Offer Market Experiments, Bart Wilson, Douglas Davis

Bart J Wilson

No abstract provided.

Language Games Of Reciprocity, Bart Wilson

Bart J Wilson

No abstract provided.

Strategic Buyers, Horizontal Mergers And Synergies: An Experimental Investigation, Bart Wilson, Douglas Davis

Bart J Wilson

No abstract provided.

Fixed Revenue Auctions, Bart Wilson, Cary Deck

Bart J Wilson

No abstract provided.

Economics Works! Experiments In High School Classrooms, Bart Wilson, Stephen Jackstadt, Paul Johnson

Bart J Wilson

No abstract provided.

Second Chance Offers Vs. Sequential Auctions: Theory And Behavior, Bart Wilson, Timothy Salmon

Bart J Wilson

No abstract provided.

An Experimental Investigation Of Hobbesian Jungles, Bart Wilson, Benjamin Powell

Bart J Wilson

No abstract provided.

Historical Property Rights, Sociality, And The Emergence Of Impersonal Exchange In Long-Distance Trade, Bart Wilson, Erik Kimbrough, Vernon Smith

Bart J Wilson

No abstract provided.

Incremental Approaches To Establishing Trust, Bart Wilson, Robert Kurzban, Mary Rigdon

Bart J Wilson

No abstract provided.

Clitoridectomy And The Economics Of Islamic Marriage & Divorce Law, Ryan M. Riegg

Ryan M. Riegg

Comparing Judicial Compensation: Apples, Oranges, And Cherry-Picking, Matthew W. Wolfe

Matthew W. Wolfe

United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts describes the American judiciary as the envy of other constitutional democracies. But in one respect, the judiciary apparently trails others: judicial pay. Citing higher salaries of judges in other countries, Chief Justice Roberts and Associate Justices Stephen Breyer and Samuel Alito have all argued that inadequate judicial pay leads to a decline in judicial performance and quality. Judicial pay advocates apparently make these comparisons to emphasize that low judicial salaries “threaten” judicial quality and independence or, alternatively, that high judicial salaries “ensure” quality and independence. But the argument is incomplete, relying upon …

Statistical String Theory For Courts: If The Data Don't Fit..., David F. Babbel

David F Babbel

The primary purpose of this article is to provide courts with an important new tool for applying the correct probability distribution to a given legal question. This tool is path-breaking and will have an extensive impact on how a wide variety of cases are decided. In areas as diverse as criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits alleging securities fraud, courts must assess the relevance and reliability of statistical data and the inferences drawn therefrom. But, courts and expert witnesses often make mistaken assumptions about what probability distributions are appropriate for their analyses. Using the wrong probability distribution can lead to invalid …

Behavioral Public Finance, Edward J. Mccaffery

Edward J McCaffery

These are slides from a presentation to the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research, Squaw Valley Conference, May, 2008 (at which event Michael Jensen got me to agree to post these slides as a pdf on SSRN . . . ). The task is to give an overview of what I hope to be an emerging field of behavioral public finance. Behavioral finance, as per Barberis and Thaler 2003 (and others), consists of two parts: (1) individual level heuristics and biases, which can lead to sub-optimal (inconsistent) judgment and decision-making, and (2) institutional arbitrage mechanisms. In private finance and …

Comments On Liebman And Zeckhauser, Simple Humans, Complex Insurance, Subtle Subsidies, Edward J. Mccaffery

Edward J McCaffery

These are brief comments on an excellent paper by Jeffrey Liebman and Richard Zeckhauser, prepared for a conference sponsored by the Urban Institute and Brookings on tax and health care policy. Liebman and Zeckhauser summarize the complexities involved in making optimal health insurance decisions, and offer generally cautionary notes about conflating these with tax law (a theme of the conference). Most importantly, Liebman and Zeckhauser suggest a positive role for employers in health care and insurance decisions, as better setters or framers of choice sets—witness 401(k) plans. In this Commentary, I applaud Leibman and Zeckhauser’s general work and particular observation, …

How The Government Can Protect Home Mortgage Consumers: A Proposal To Provide Consumers A Risk Assessment Of Mortgages, Adeline Park

Adeline Park

The recent sub-prime mortgage crisis has revealed the consumer’s vulnerability in the home mortgage marketplace. Consumers face an overwhelming variety of mortgage options, and are not motivated to invest the necessary time and resources to comprehend the meaning and implications of each loan feature. I propose that the government assess the risk of each loan feature available in the home mortgage market, based on the historical number of foreclosures each loan type has yielded. The government will then require lenders to display the risk assessment icon on all sales, marketing, and advertising materials. The risk assessment icon will identify the …

Reaffirming The Rights Of Foreign Investors To The Protection Of Icsid Arbitration: Sempra Energy International V. The Argentine Republic, Daniel Krawiec

Daniel A Krawiec II

Earlier this decade, the Argentine government responded to a substantial domestic economic crises by passing several emergency laws and unilaterally changing the terms of its investment agreements with foreign investors. Sempra v. Argentine Republic is an important case because the tribunal decisively reaffirmed the right to ICSID arbitration for American investors harmed by Argentina’s actions. Furthermore, the tribunal held that the U.S.-Argentina bilateral investment treaty provided substantial substantive investment protection.

Are Contingent-Fee Attorneys Deterred?: How Courts Can More Effectively Police Adhesive Arbitration Agreements, Kenyon Harbison

Kenyon D Harbison

If you’re like me, you become bound by a new arbitration agreement almost every day, sometimes without even knowing it. They are included with banking and credit card statements, in most employment contracts, and in most purchase agreements. When we make purchases online we ‘click’ our assent to them without reading them. When we receive them in the mail we signal our assent by failing to opt out. But what happens when we are injured, defrauded, or cheated, try to sue, and find we are instead subject to arbitration? What standards can we expect courts to apply if we challenge …

Leave Those Orcs Alone: Property Rights In Virtual Worlds, Kevin Deenihan

Kevin E Deenihan

Conversion of property is a familiar piece of law. What about conversion of virtual property? In 2006, a man filed suit claiming theft of virtual real estate he maintained in a Virtual World. The Judge may well have wondered: is this property law? Intellectual property? Torts? Contract? When should the law even apply to Virtual Worlds at all? New societies populated by millions of people have sprung up in the online context. Their inhabitants buy goods, trade with each other, and form complex self-regulating organizations and economic systems. All are activities governed in the real world by centuries of legal …

Comparing Judicial Compensation: Apples, Oranges, And Cherry-Picking, Matthew W. Wolfe, Reed Watson

Matthew W. Wolfe

United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts describes the American judiciary as the envy of other constitutional democracies. But in one respect, the judiciary apparently trails others: judicial pay. Citing higher salaries of judges in other countries, Chief Justice Roberts and Associate Justices Stephen Breyer and Samuel Alito have all argued that inadequate judicial pay leads to a decline in judicial performance and quality. Judicial pay advocates apparently make these comparisons to emphasize that low judicial salaries “threaten” judicial quality and independence or, alternatively, that high judicial salaries “ensure” quality and independence. But the argument is incomplete, relying upon …

"Can Tax Policy Stop Human Trafficking?", Diane Fahey

Diane L. Fahey

ABSTRACT

Can Tax Policy Stop Human Trafficking?

The total number of victims who are held in captivity to perform forced labor at any one time is estimated to be as high as twenty-seven million. That would be equivalent to every man, woman, and child in the states of New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New York being held in captivity and forced twelve to fourteen hours each day to labor in sweatshops, or toil as agricultural workers, or service sexually many customers every day with no hope that it will ever end except by death. They would live in crowded, dirty …

A Positive Theory Of Eminent Domain, Eric Kades

Eric A. Kades

"Old And Making Hay:" The Results Of The Pro Bono Institute Survey On The Viability Of A "Second Acts" Program To Transition Attorneys To Retirement Through Pro Bono Work, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, Esther F. Lardent, Reena Glazer, Kellen Ressmeyer

Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt

In his 1998 Fairchild Lecture, Professor Marc Galanter proposed the idea that senior attorneys should be encouraged to undertake “a second ‘public service’ career” as a way of transitioning to retirement. The logic for encouraging such “Second Acts” in lawyers’ careers is compelling. As Professor Galanter has demonstrated, in the coming years, there will be record numbers of attorneys navigating the transition to retirement as the “Baby Boomers” reach their golden years. This substantial body of highly skilled lawyers could have a significant impact on fulfilling unmet needs for legal representation. If even 5% of the practicing attorneys over sixty-five …

Gender And The Legal Profession: The Michigan Alumni Data Set 1967-2000, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, Marc S. Galanter, Kaushik Mukhopadhaya, Kathleen E. Hull

Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt

The entry of women into the legal profession has forever changed both lawyers and the profession. In the brief period since the 1970’s, women have gone from a few brave pioneers constituting 3% of the bar to almost half of all new law students and a third of practicing attorneys. Women have brought to the profession a different set of assets and problems than men, focusing attention on the problem of balancing work and family in a way not previously experienced by the profession. In this study, we use the University of Michigan Law School Alumni Data Set to undertake …

Waging War With Wal-Mart: A Cry For Change Threatens The Future Of Industrial Loan Corporations, Zachariah J. Lloyd

Zachariah J. Lloyd

Although ILCs have existed with relatively little fanfare for decades and several blue chips already control ILCs of their own, Wal-Mart’s ILC application created unprecedented opposition and drastic calls for legislative action from nearly every arena to prevent Wal-Mart and other giant retailers like it from controlling a banking institution. The purpose of this Note is to chronicle the development of the ILC industry and analyze whether the separation of banking and commerce is a justifiable basis for opposing ILCs. Part II will address: the history of the ILC, from its creation to emergence as the banking entity of choice …

The Chicago School Virus, Spencer Weber Waller

Spencer Weber Waller

The Chicago School of Law and Economics is a leading example of a highly successful legal ideology. As one recent commentator has noted: "[T]he basic characteristic of the Chicago School is the belief that free markets and the price mechanism are the most effective and desirable ways for a society to organize production and economic life in general." The Chicago School of Law and Economics applies these insights to legal questions and views the creation and enforcement of legal rules primarily in terms of how legal rules and institutions promote allocative efficiency and wealth maximization.

While much ink has been …

Building A Market: From Personal To Impersonal Exchange, Bart Wilson, Erik Kimbrough, Vernon Smith

Bart J. Wilson

No abstract provided.

Experimental Gasoline Markets, Bart Wilson, Cary Deck

Bart J. Wilson

No abstract provided.

Good Faith And Fair Dealing In Commercial Leasing: The Right Doctrine In The Wrong Transaction, Daniel B. Bogart

Daniel B. Bogart

Professor Bogart was keynote lecturer for the 2007 Kratovil Conference Real Estate Law and Practice sponsored by the John Marshall Law School Center for Real Estate Law. This article was solicited in connection with that lecture. In this article, Professor Daniel Bogart criticizes the unfortunate habit of many courts to import the doctrine of good faith and fair dealing, as it has been developed in residential real estate law, into commercial leasing. Commercial leasing practice is hugely important to real property lawyers and generates a significant portion of their legal fees. More importantly, commercial leasing is the driving force behind …

The University As Consumer?: Rethinking Overlap Behavior, Kenyon D. Harbison

Kenyon D Harbison

From the 1950's through the decision in United States v. Brown University, the Ivy League colluded with regard to the financial aid awards it awarded to commonly admitted students, pursuant to a so-called "Overlap Agreement." In the 90's, the federal government sued, alleging antitrust violations, and all but one university settled. MIT took the case up to the Third Circuit, which roughly held that non-economic pro-competitive justifications could be assessed in applying Rule-of-Reason antitrust analysis. MIT settled before the remand, or before the case could go to the Supreme Court. To date, all commentators have blindly followed standard economic orthodoxy, …

Turned On Its Head?: Norms, Freedom, And Acceptable Terms In Internet Contracting, Richard Warner

Richard Warner

Is the Internet turning contract law on its head? Many commentators contend it is. Precisely this issue arises in current controversies over end user license agreements (EULAs) and Terms of Use agreements (TOUs, the agreements governing our use of web sites). Commentators complain that, in both cases, the formation process unduly restricts buyers’ freedom; and, that sellers and web site owners exploit the process to impose terms that deprive consumers of important intellectual property and privacy rights. The courts ignore the criticisms and routinely enforce EULAs and TOUs. There is truth on both sides of this court/commentator divide. EULAs and …