Law Commons^™

The Law Of Restitution For Mistaken Payments: An Economic Analysis, Dhammika Dharmapala, Nuno Garoupa

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

The law of restitution and unjust enrichment has emerged as an important and independent branch of private law globally, but has attracted relatively little economic analysis. The aim of this paper is to develop a general conceptual framework for the economic analysis of the core example of restitution - mistaken payments. We develop a formal model in a parsimonious setting with two buyer-seller pairs, with low (high) transaction costs within (across) pairs. This model generates several novel insights, based on the idea that mistaken payments to strangers impose a “transaction tax” on contracting parties. It sheds new light on distortions …

Stigler's Theory Of Economic Regulation After Fifty Years, Sam Peltzman

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

George Stigler’s “The Theory of Economic Regulation” (1971) is a landmark in the economics of regulation. It used simple public choice reasoning to set out the “capture theory” of regulation whereby “… as a rule, regulation is acquired by the industry and is designed and operated primarily for its benefit.” This article, written for a commemoration of the 1971 article in Public Choice, summarizes the context within which the article appeared and evaluate its long run impact. A central argument is the need to distinguish “acquired” from “designed and operated.” The rule that regulation is produced in response to industry …

Antitrust And Labor Markets: A Reply To Richard Epstein, Eric A. Posner

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

In his article, The Application of Antitrust Law to Labor Markets—Then and Now, Richard Epstein argues that rather than urge courts and regulators to apply antitrust law to labor markets, reformers who care about labor market competition should try to constrain unions. In this reply, I argue that Epstein’s assumptions about labor market structure are contradicted by mountains of empirical evidence. The anticompetitive behavior of employers causes significant harm to social welfare—both in terms of economic output and equity. Antitrust law is a valuable tool for addressing America’s ailing labor markets.

Framing Vaccine Mandates: Messenger And Message Effects, Christopher Buccafusco, Daniel Hemel

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

In September 2021, President Biden announced that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure that their workers are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or show a negative test for the virus at least once a week. The policy has been widely characterized in the media as “President Biden’s vaccine mandate,” though it could be described with equal accuracy as “OSHA’s testing mandate” (since OSHA, rather than Biden, officially promulgated the policy, and once-a-week testing and vaccination are both valid compliance options). Some commentators have speculated that reframing the policy as …

Controlling Externalities: Ownership Structure And Cross-Firm Externalities, Dhammika Dharmapala, Vikramaditya S. Khanna

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

In recent years, debates over the social purpose of corporations have taken center stage amidst rising concern about externalities (such as those associated with climate change and harmful speech) generated by firms. A key motivation is the claim that government regulation and liability regimes appear not to be functioning sufficiently well to force firms to internalize these externalities. There is thus rising interest in exploring alternative mechanisms. In particular, a rapidly growing body of scholarship argues that index funds increasingly approximate diversified “universal owners” with incentives to maximize portfolio value (and thus to internalize cross-firm externalities). However, much of this …

The Tax Gap's Many Shades Of Gray, Daniel J. Hemel, Janet Holtzblatt, Steve Rosenthal

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

The “tax gap”—the difference between the amount of “true tax” and the amount of tax actually paid—has garnered widespread attention in recent months. Much of the commentary on the subject equates the tax gap with “tax evasion,” a term broadly understood to connote intentional (and potentially criminal) under reporting. This paper cautions against conflating the tax gap with tax evasion. The tax gap includes substantial gray areas where the law is ambiguous and the IRS’s determination of “true tax” is debatable. On top of that, the IRS’s methodology for measuring the tax gap includes upward adjustments that are recommended by …

Probabilistic Disclosures For Corporate And Other Law, Saul Levmore

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

This Article explores the costs and benefits of one subset of continuous and discontinuous rules. These expressions are shown to be distinct from the familiar dichotomy expressed as standards versus rules, but they share the difficulty of dividing the world of law in two. Still, regulatory approaches that focus on discontinuities can often be made more continuous, and vice versa. A speed limit is discontinuous in the sense that one drives above or below (or within) the announced limit. But it is often made more continuous – even with more discontinuities – as when the stated limit is different for …

Immigration, Retaliation, And Jurisdiction, Daniel E. Simon

University of Chicago Legal Forum

No abstract provided.

When Free Speech Isn’T Free: The Rising Costs Of Hosting Controversial Speakers At Public Universities, Rebecca Roman

University of Chicago Legal Forum

No abstract provided.

“Segs And The City” And Cutting-Edge Aesthetic Experiences: Resolving The Circuit Split On Tour Guides’ Licensing Requirements And The First Amendment, Marie J. Plecha

University of Chicago Legal Forum

No abstract provided.

Preserving A Democratic Shield: First Amendment Challenges To Michigan’S Independent Redistricting Commission, Michael Ortega

University of Chicago Legal Forum

No abstract provided.

The Practice Of Prayer At School Board Meetings: The Coercion Test As A Framework To Determine The Constitutionality Of School Board Prayer, Claire Lee

University of Chicago Legal Forum

No abstract provided.

Climate Change Disclosures After Nifla, Daniel Abrams

University of Chicago Legal Forum

No abstract provided.

The Majoritarian Press Clause, Sonja R. West

University of Chicago Legal Forum

No abstract provided.

Lapidation And Apology, Cass R. Sunstein

University of Chicago Legal Forum

Groups of people, outraged by some real or imagined transgression, often respond in a way that is wildly disproportionate to the occasion, thus ruining the transgressor’s day, month, year, or life. To capture that phenomenon, we might repurpose an old word: lapidation. Technically, the word is a synonym for stoning, but it sounds much less violent. It is also obscure, which makes it easier to enlist for contemporary purposes. Lapidation plays a role in affirming, and helping to constitute, tribal identity. It typically occurs when a transgressor is taken to have violated a taboo, which helps account for the different …

Free Speech And The “Unique Evils” Of Public Accommodations Discrimination, Elizabeth Sepper

University of Chicago Legal Forum

No abstract provided.

Free Speech Overrides, Frederick Schauer

University of Chicago Legal Forum

No abstract provided.

Discrimination, The Speech That Enables It, And The First Amendment, Helen Norton

University of Chicago Legal Forum

No abstract provided.

Defending Speech Crimes, Judith P. Miller

University of Chicago Legal Forum

No abstract provided.

The First Amendment As A Procrustean Bed?: On How And Why Bright Line First Amendment Tests Can Stifle The Scope And Vibrancy Of Democratic Deliberation, Ronald J. Krotoszynski Jr.

University of Chicago Legal Forum

No abstract provided.

Uncommon Law: The Past, Present And Future Of Libel Law In A Time Of “Fake News” And “Enemies Of The American People”, Jane E. Kirtley

University of Chicago Legal Forum

No abstract provided.

Must Free Speech Be Harmful?, Leslie Kendrick

University of Chicago Legal Forum

No abstract provided.

Is There An Anti-Democracy Principle In The Post- Janus V. Afscme First Amendment?, Charlotte Garden

University of Chicago Legal Forum

No abstract provided.

The Internet As A Speech Machine And Other Myths Confounding Section 230 Reform, Danielle Keats Citron, Mary Anne Franks

University of Chicago Legal Forum

No abstract provided.

The Shifting Law Of Sexual Speech: Rethinking Robert Mapplethorpe, Amy Adler

University of Chicago Legal Forum

No abstract provided.

Whole Issue 2020

University of Chicago Legal Forum

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LEGAL FORUM VOLUME 2020

Judge Wood Meets International Tax, Julie Roin

University of Chicago Law Review

There is always a danger in having courts of general jurisdiction rule on issues involving the application of technical pieces of specialized legislation. Judges in these courts generally lack the background necessary to understand the interactions between the particular issue(s) under scrutiny and the larger legislative or regulatory picture. And unfortunately, the parties, usually operating under strict space constraints in their briefs, often fail to educate the judges about that larger picture. That is the situation Judge Diane Wood found herself in twenty-two years ago when it fell to her to write the opinion in Amoco Corp v Commissioner of …

Migratory Birds And The Administrative State, David A. Strauss

University of Chicago Law Review

Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v United States Army Corps of Engineers,¹ a case in which Judge Diane Wood wrote the opinion for a unanimous Seventh Circuit panel, addressed important questions about both the Commerce Clause and the Clean Water Act² (CWA). The Supreme Court reversed the Seventh Circuit’s decision by a vote of five to four. To read the Supreme Court’s majority opinion side by side with Judge Wood’s is to see a contrast that does not, to put it mildly, make the Supreme Court look good. Judge Wood’s opinion is lucid, careful, and measured; …

Death As Divorce For The Abandoned Spouse: Davis V Combes And The Cautious And Gender-Sensitive Judiciary, Saul Levmore

University of Chicago Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pattern Recognition In Tyus V Urban Search Management, Lee Anne Fennell

University of Chicago Law Review

Making judgments requires recognizing patterns—paying attention and picking out recurrent features in a noisy environment. Judge Diane Wood’s opinion in Tyus v Urban Search Management¹ is a masterwork in pattern recognition at several levels. It speaks to the need for legal doctrines capable of reaching subtle and cumulative acts of discrimination that continue to limit opportunities and stand in the way of the “truly integrated and balanced living patterns”² that were part of the original vision of the federal Fair Housing Act³ (FHA).

Tyus involved advertising campaigns used to market The New York, an upscale Chicago apartment …