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Full-Text Articles in Law

Social Welfare, Human Dignity, And The Puzzle Of What We Owe Each Other, Amy L. Wax Dec 2003

Social Welfare, Human Dignity, And The Puzzle Of What We Owe Each Other, Amy L. Wax

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

Proponents of work-based welfare reform claim that moving the poor from welfare to work will advance the goals of economic self-reliance and independence. Reform opponents attack these objectives as ideologically motivated and conceptually incoherent. Drawing on perspectives developed by luck egalitarians and feminist theorists, these critics disparage conventional notions of economic desert, find fault with market measures of value, debunk ideals of autonomy, and emphasize the pervasiveness of interdependence and unearned benefits within free market societies. These arguments pose an important challenge to justifications usually advanced for work-based welfare reform. Reform proponents must concede that no member of society can …


Regulating Irrational Exuberance And Anxiety In Securities Markets , Peter H. Huang Dec 2003

Regulating Irrational Exuberance And Anxiety In Securities Markets , Peter H. Huang

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

This paper analyzes the regulatory implications of irrational exuberance and anxiety in securities markets. U.S. federal securities laws mandate the disclosure of certain information, but regulate only the cognitive form and content of that information. An important and unstudied question is how to regulate securities markets where some investors respond not only cognitively to the form and content of information, but also emotionally to the form and content of information. This paper investigates that question when some investors feel exuberance or anxiety that is unjustified by cognitive processing of the available information. This paper develops the implications for mandatory securities …


Too Close To The Rack And The Screw: Constitutional Constraints On Torture In The War On Terror, Seth F. Kreimer Nov 2003

Too Close To The Rack And The Screw: Constitutional Constraints On Torture In The War On Terror, Seth F. Kreimer

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

No abstract provided.


Building Sector-Based Consensus: A Review Of The Epa's Common Sense Initiative, Cary Coglianese, Laurie K. Allen Sep 2003

Building Sector-Based Consensus: A Review Of The Epa's Common Sense Initiative, Cary Coglianese, Laurie K. Allen

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

In the late 1990s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted what the agency considered to be a "bold experiment" in regulatory reinvention, bringing representatives from six industrial sectors together with government officials and NGO representatives to forge a consensus on innovations in public policy and business practices. This paper assesses the impact of the agency's "experiment" - called the Common Sense Initiative (CSI) - in terms of the agency's goals of improving regulatory performance and technological innovation. Based on a review of CSI projects across all six sectors, the paper shows how EPA achieved, at best, quite modest accomplishments. …


“Black People’S Money”: The Impact Of Law, Economics, And Culture In The Context Of Race On Damage Recoveries, Regina Austin Jul 2003

“Black People’S Money”: The Impact Of Law, Economics, And Culture In The Context Of Race On Damage Recoveries, Regina Austin

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

“’Black People’s Money’: The Impact of Law, Economics, and Culture in the Context of Race on Damage Recoveries” is one of a series of articles by the author dealing with black economic marginalization; prior work considered such topics as shopping and selling as forms of deviance, street vending, restraints on leisure, and the importance of informality in loan transactions. This article deals with the linkage between the social significance of black people’s money and its material value. It analyzes the construction of “black money,” its association with cash, and the taboos and cultural practices that assure that black money will …


The Effect Of Abortion Legalization On Sexual Behavior: Evidence From Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Jonathan Klick, Thomas Stratmann Jun 2003

The Effect Of Abortion Legalization On Sexual Behavior: Evidence From Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Jonathan Klick, Thomas Stratmann

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

Unwanted pregnancy represents a major cost of sexual activity. When abortion was legalized in a number of states in 1969 and 1970 (and nationally in 1973), this cost was reduced. We predict that abortion legalization generated incentives leading to an increase in sexual activity, accompanied by an increase in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Using Centers for Disease Control data on the incidence of gonorrhea and syphilis by state, we test the hypothesis that abortion legalization led to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases. We find that gonorrhea and syphilis incidences are significantly and positively correlated with abortion legalization. Further, we …


Why Do Distressed Companies Choose Delaware? An Empirical Analysis Of Venue Choice In Bankruptcy , Kenneth M. Ayotte, David A. Skeel Jr. May 2003

Why Do Distressed Companies Choose Delaware? An Empirical Analysis Of Venue Choice In Bankruptcy , Kenneth M. Ayotte, David A. Skeel Jr.

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

We analyze a sample of large Chapter 11 cases to determine which factors motivate the choice of filing in one court over another when a choice is available. We focus in particular on the Delaware court, which became the most popular venue for large corporations in the 1990s. We find no evidence of agency problems governing the venue choice or affecting the outcome of the bankruptcy process. Instead, firm characteristics and court characteristics, particularly a court's level of experience, are the most important factors. We find that court experience manifests itself in both a greater ability to reorganize marginal firms …


Judging Unions' Future Using A Historical Perspective: The Public Policy Choice Between Competition And Unionization, Michael L. Wachter May 2003

Judging Unions' Future Using A Historical Perspective: The Public Policy Choice Between Competition And Unionization, Michael L. Wachter

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

In this paper I look at unions' future using a historical perspective and focusing on the period of union ascendancy as well as the past few decades when unions have been in decline. We know trends currently in place are unfavorable to unions. What conditions would be favorable? The rise of unions from the 1930s through the early 1950s was due to the convergence of a number of events - an economic policy that attempted to restrict competition beginning in the 1930s, the twin beliefs that labor markets were inherently noncompetitive and/or that individual workplaces were exploitative, and low union …


Risk, Death And Harm: The Normative Foundations Of Risk Regulation, Matthew D. Adler Apr 2003

Risk, Death And Harm: The Normative Foundations Of Risk Regulation, Matthew D. Adler

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

Is death a harm? Is the risk of death a harm? These questions lie at the foundations of risk regulation. Agencies that regulate threats to human life, such as the EPA, OSHA, the FDA, the CPSC, or NHTSA, invariably assume that premature death is a first-party harm - a welfare setback to the person who dies - and often assume that being at risk of death is a distinct and additional first-party harm. If these assumptions are untrue, the myriad statutes and regulations that govern risky activities should be radically overhauled, since the third-party benefits of preventing premature death and …


Creditors' Ball: The "New" New Corporate Governance In Chapter 11, David A. Skeel Jr. Mar 2003

Creditors' Ball: The "New" New Corporate Governance In Chapter 11, David A. Skeel Jr.

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

In the 1980s and early 1990s, many observers believed that the American corporate bankruptcy laws were desperately inefficient. The managers of the debtor stayed in control as "debtor in possession" after filing for bankruptcy, and they had the exclusive right to propose a reorganization plan for at least the first four months of the case, and often far longer. The result was lengthy cases, deteriorating value and numerous academic proposals to replace Chapter 11 with an alternative regime. In the early years of the new millennium, bankruptcy could not look more different. Cases proceed much more quickly, and they are …


Taxing Sunny Days: Adjusting Taxes For Regional Living Costs And Amenities, Michael S. Knoll, Thomas D. Griffith Feb 2003

Taxing Sunny Days: Adjusting Taxes For Regional Living Costs And Amenities, Michael S. Knoll, Thomas D. Griffith

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

No abstract provided.


Genocide, Press Freedom, And The Case Of Hassan Ngeze, C. Edwin Baker Jan 2003

Genocide, Press Freedom, And The Case Of Hassan Ngeze, C. Edwin Baker

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

This essay was written under contract with the United Nations to serve as background for my testimony as an expert witness in behalf of Hassen Ngeze in his prosecution before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. (On motion of the prosecutor, the Court excluded this essay - or report - and the offer of my testimony.) In the Prosecutor v. Ngeze, the prosecution charged Ngeze with direct and public incitement to genocide and conspiracy to commit genocide almost entirely on the basis of his publication of a newspaper, Kangura one of many newspapers being published in Rwanda during the period …


Prohibited Risks And Culpable Disregard Or Inattentiveness: Challenge And Confusion In The Formulation Of Risk-Creation Offenses, Paul H. Robinson Jan 2003

Prohibited Risks And Culpable Disregard Or Inattentiveness: Challenge And Confusion In The Formulation Of Risk-Creation Offenses, Paul H. Robinson

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

Because they track the Model Penal Code, current criminal law formulations of risk offenses typically fail to distinguish the rule of conduct question - What risks does the criminal law prohibit? - from the adjudication question - When is a particular violator's conscious disregard of, or his inattentiveness to, a risk in a particular situation sufficiently condemnable to deserve criminal liability? Instead, the formulations address only the second question - through their definition of reckless and negligent culpability - and fail to provide a rule of conduct provision to define a prohibited risk. This reliance upon culpability definitions as the …


New Models Of Regulation And Interagency Governance, Christopher S. Yoo Jan 2003

New Models Of Regulation And Interagency Governance, Christopher S. Yoo

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

No abstract provided.


Exhaustion Under The Prison Litigation Reform Act: The Consequence Of Procedural Error, Kermit Roosevelt Iii Jan 2003

Exhaustion Under The Prison Litigation Reform Act: The Consequence Of Procedural Error, Kermit Roosevelt Iii

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

No abstract provided.


Where Shall We Live? Class And The Limitations Of Fair Housing Law, Wendell Pritchett Jan 2003

Where Shall We Live? Class And The Limitations Of Fair Housing Law, Wendell Pritchett

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

This paper examines the effort to secure fair housing laws at the local, state and federal levels in the 1950s, focusing in particular on New York City and state. It will examine the arguments that advocates made regarding the role the law should play in preventing housing discrimination, and the relationship of these views to advocates' understanding of property rights in general. My paper will argue that fair housing advocates had particular conceptions about the importance of housing in American society that both supported and limited their success. By arguing that minorities only sought what others wanted - a single-family …


Is Risk A Harm?, Claire Oakes Finkelstein Jan 2003

Is Risk A Harm?, Claire Oakes Finkelstein

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

No abstract provided.


Corporate Policy And The Coherence Of Delaware Takeover Law, Richard E. Kihlstrom, Michael L. Wachter Jan 2003

Corporate Policy And The Coherence Of Delaware Takeover Law, Richard E. Kihlstrom, Michael L. Wachter

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

This Article presents a model that can be used to explain key elements of Delaware takeover law. By incorporating corporate policy as a key variable in the model, Delaware law’s management discretion rule can be shown to be best suited for maximizing the value of the corporation and the shareholders’ interest under a set of reasonable assumptions. By allowing for occasional market mispricing and the agency costs associated with managing to the market, we demonstrate that a shareholder choice regime would likely lead to suboptimal investment decisions. In our model, managers are assumed to have better information regarding alternative corporate …


The Right To Remain Silent Helps Only The Guilty, Stephanos Bibas Jan 2003

The Right To Remain Silent Helps Only The Guilty, Stephanos Bibas

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

No abstract provided.


The Case For Replealing The Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax, Terrence R. Chorvat, Michael S. Knoll Jan 2003

The Case For Replealing The Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax, Terrence R. Chorvat, Michael S. Knoll

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

No abstract provided.


How To Fix Wall Street: A Voucher Financing Proposal For Securities Intermediaries, Stephen Choi, Jill E. Fisch Jan 2003

How To Fix Wall Street: A Voucher Financing Proposal For Securities Intermediaries, Stephen Choi, Jill E. Fisch

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

No abstract provided.


Diminished Rationality, Diminished Responsibility, Stephen J. Morse Jan 2003

Diminished Rationality, Diminished Responsibility, Stephen J. Morse

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

No abstract provided.


The "Public Menace" Of Blight: Urban Renewal And The Private Uses Of Eminent Domain, Wendell E. Pritchett Jan 2003

The "Public Menace" Of Blight: Urban Renewal And The Private Uses Of Eminent Domain, Wendell E. Pritchett

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

No abstract provided.


Containing The Promise Of Insurance: Adverse Selection And Risk Classification, Tom Baker Jan 2003

Containing The Promise Of Insurance: Adverse Selection And Risk Classification, Tom Baker

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

Insurance law, risk pools, adverse selection


Arbitration, Consent And Contractual Theory: The Implications Of Eeoc V.Waffle House, Jaime L. Dodge, Elizabeth Pollman Jan 2003

Arbitration, Consent And Contractual Theory: The Implications Of Eeoc V.Waffle House, Jaime L. Dodge, Elizabeth Pollman

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

Consent has long been the foundation of arbitration, giving the process legitimacy and informing decisions about its nature and structure. The Supreme Court has consistently required consent as a precondition for compelling arbitration. However, it remains unclear what actions constitute consent. In First Options v. Kaplan,1 the Supreme Court held that courts should apply state contract law to determine whether an arbitral clause exists, but “added an important qualification” that “[c]ourts should not assume that the parties have agreed to arbitrate unless there is clear and unmistakable evidence that they did so.”2 In the wake of First Options, the courts …


Child Welfare And Civil Rights, Dorothy E. Roberts Jan 2003

Child Welfare And Civil Rights, Dorothy E. Roberts

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

No abstract provided.


The Securities Analyst As Agent: Rethinking The Regulation Of Analysts, Jill E. Fisch, Hillary A. Sale Jan 2003

The Securities Analyst As Agent: Rethinking The Regulation Of Analysts, Jill E. Fisch, Hillary A. Sale

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

No abstract provided.


The Implications Of Transition Theory For Stare Decisis, Jill E. Fisch Jan 2003

The Implications Of Transition Theory For Stare Decisis, Jill E. Fisch

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

No abstract provided.


The Immigration Paradox: Poverty, Distributive Justice, And Liberal Egalitarianism, Howard F. Chang Jan 2003

The Immigration Paradox: Poverty, Distributive Justice, And Liberal Egalitarianism, Howard F. Chang

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

The immigration of unskilled workers poses a fundamental problem for liberals. While from the perspective of the economic welfare of natives, the optimal policy would be to admit these aliens as guest workers, this policy would violate liberal egalitarian ideals. These ideals would treat these resident workers as equals, entitled to access to citizenship and to the full set of public benefits provided to citizens. If the welfare of all incumbent residents determines admissions policies, however, and we anticipate the fiscal burden that the immigration of the poor would impose, then our welfare criterion would preclude the admission of unskilled …


Defeating Class Certification In Securities Fraud Actions, Kermit Roosevelt Iii Jan 2003

Defeating Class Certification In Securities Fraud Actions, Kermit Roosevelt Iii

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

No abstract provided.