Law Commons^™

Deliberating About Dollars: The Severity Shift Empirical Study, Cass R. Sunstein, Daniel Kahneman, David Schkade

Articles

How does jury deliberation affect the predeliberation judgments of individual jurors? In this paper we make progress on that question by reporting the results of a study of over 500 mock juries composed of over 3000 jury eligible citizens. Our principal finding is that with respect to dollars, deliberation produces a "severity shift," in which the jury's dollar verdict is systematically higher than that of the median of its jurors' predeliberation judgments. A "deliberation shift analysis" is introduced to measure the effect of deliberation. The severity shift is attributed to a "rhetorical asymmetry," in which arguments for higher awards are …

Group Dynamics, Cass R. Sunstein

Articles

No abstract provided.

Television And The Public Interest, Cass R. Sunstein

Articles

The communications revolution has thrown into question the value of imposing public interest obligations on television broadcasters. But the distinctive nature of this unusual market-with "winner-take-all"features, with viewers as a commodity, with pervasive externalities from private choices, and with market effects on preferences as well as the other way around-justifies a continuing role for government regulation in the public interest. At the same time, regulation best takes the form, not of anachronistic command-and-control regulation, but of (1) disclosure requirements, (2) economic incentives ("pay or play"), and (3) voluntary self-regulation through a privately administered code. Some discussion is devoted to free …

American Advice And New Constitutions Global Affairs Experiences, Cass R. Sunstein

Articles

No abstract provided.

Too Pragmatic By Half (Reviewing Daniel A. Farber, Eco-Pragmatism: Making Sensible Environmental Decisions In An Uncertain World (1999)), Richard A. Epstein

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Constitutional Perils Of Moderation: The Case Of The Boy Scouts, Richard A. Epstein

Articles

No abstract provided.

Contest And Consent: A Legal History Of Marital Rape, Jill Elaine Hasday

Articles

No abstract provided.

Customary International Law And Private Rights Of Action, Curtis A. Bradley

Articles

It has been twenty years since the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued its landmark decision in Filartiga v PenaIrala. In upholding federal court jurisdiction over a suit between aliens concerning violations of international human rights standards in a foreign country, the court in Filartiga paved the way for modern international human rights litigation. As Professor David Bederman has observed, "[i]n a sense, all current human rights litigation owes its fortune to Filartiga." Since Filartiga, US courts have been confronted with two waves of international human rights litigation. The first wave has primarily involved suits, like Filartiga …

Treaties, Human Rights, And Conditional Consent, Curtis A. Bradley, Jack L. Goldsmith

Articles

Article II of the Constitution grants the President the "Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur."1 When the President obtains the Senate's advice and consent and ratifies a treaty, the treaty binds the United States internationally. If the treaty is "self-executing,"² also becomes part of domestic federal law, superseding both prior inconsistent federal law (treaties and statutes) and prior inconsistent state law.³

The constitutional treatymaking process was designed with a particular type of treaty in mind. In the late eighteenth century, treaties were …

Internet And The Dormant Commerce Clause, The, Jack L. Goldsmith, Alan O. Sykes

Articles

No abstract provided.

Regulatory Competition Or Regulatory Harmonization - A Silly Question, Alan O. Sykes

Articles

The debate over 'competition versus harmonization' in regulatory policy often confuses the pertinent alternatives. This comment argues that neither pure regulatory competition nor complete regulatory harmonization is desirable or feasible where important international cross-border effects of regulation arise. Instead, a considerable degree of cooperation is almost always needed, yet non-homogeneity of regulatory policies is almost always desirable as well. This proposition holds virtually regardless of the subject matter of regulation.

Agency Models In Law And Economics, Eric A. Posner

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

An Economic Analysis Of The Use Of Citations In The Law, Richard A. Posner

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

This paper examines the use of citations analysis as an empirical tool for understanding aspects of the legal system and for improving the performance of the system. Emphasis is laid on the use of such analysis as a means to evaluate courts and judges (and therefore as judicial-management tool), to test hypotheses about judicial behavior, and to evaluate and improve legal scholarship. It is argued that economic models, particularly of reputation and of human capital, can frame and guide the use of citiations analysis in law.

Simplicity And Complexity In Contracts, Karen Eggleston

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

Standard economic models of contract imply that contracts should be highly "complex," by which we mean (1) rich in the expected number of payoff-relevant contingencies; (2) variable in the magnitude of payoffs contracted to flow between parties; and (3) severe in the cognitive load necessary to understand the contract. Yet most realworld contracts are simple along all three of these dimensions. We argue that many factors, often neglected in the literature, account for this discrepancy. The factors are categorized as asymmetric information, monitoring dynamics, evolutionary pressures, conventions, reliance on trust and reputation, enforcement costs, bounded rationality, and renegotiation. This positive …

Essays On The Nature Of International Trade Law, Robert E. Hudee, Cameron R. Krieger

Chicago Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

The Law Of Group Polarization, Cass R. Sunstein

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

In a striking empirical regularity, deliberation tends to move groups, and the individuals who compose them, toward a more extreme point in the direction indicated by their own predeliberation judgments. For example, people who are opposed to the minimum wage are likely, after talking to each other, to be still more opposed; people who tend to support gun control are likely, after discussion, to support gun control with considerable enthusiasm; people who believe that global warming is a serious problem are likely, after discussion, to insist on severe measures to prevent global warming. This general phenomenon -- group polarization -- …

Should The Tax Law Require Current Accrual Of Interest On Derivative Financial Instruments?, David A. Weisbach

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Impeachment And Presidential Immunity From Judicial Process, Joseph Isenbergh

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Implementing Cost-Benefit Analysis When Preferences Are Distorted, Eric A. Posner, Matthew D. Adler

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Orwell Versus Huxley: Economics, Technology, Privacy, And Satire, Richard A. Posner

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four and Huxley's novel Brave New World have often been thought prophetic commentaries on economic, political, and social matters. I argue, with particular reference to the supposed applicability of these novels to issues of technology and privacy, that the novels are best understood as literary works of art, rather than as social science or commentary, and that when so viewed Orwell's novel in particular reflects a dissatisfaction with everyday life and a nostalgia for Romantic values.

Market Signaling Of Personal Characteristics, Richard A. Posner, Gertrud M. Fremling

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Second-Order Decisions, Cass R. Sunstein, Edna Ullmann-Margalit

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Standing For Animals, Cass R. Sunstein

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

No abstract provided.

The Law And Economics Of 'Informed Voter' Ballot Notations, Elizabeth Garrett

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Do Constitutional Amendments Matter?, David A. Strauss

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Optimal Timing And Legal Decisionmaking: The Case Of The Liquidation Decision In Bankruptcy, Edward Morrison, Douglas G. Baird

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Regulating Network Industries: A Look At Intel, Randal C. Picker

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Cognition And Cost-Benefit Analysis, Cass R. Sunstein

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Lessons From A Debacle: From Impeachment To Reform, Cass R. Sunstein

Articles

No abstract provided.

Nondelegation Canons, Cass R. Sunstein

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.