Law Commons^™

Exposing The Myth Of Homo Economicus, Ronald J. Colombo

Ronald J Colombo

The prevalence of the "homo economicus" model of humanity has crowded out considerations of important noneconomic aspects of human nature - most importantly, the moral dimension of human thought and conduct. As a result, our understanding of the present ills besetting the business world and the market economy is incomplete, and the policy prescriptions flowing therefrom are often suboptimal (if not counterproductive).

This book review situates "Moral Markets" within this larger debate over human nature generally. I show how, through the presentation of biological evidence and evolutionary theory, "Moral Markets" repudiates the "homo economicus" model of humankind, and supports the …

The Role Of Informal Legal Institutions In Economic Development, Kevin J. Fandl

Kevin J Fandl

The purveyance of the rule of law in developing countries has frequently been associated with positive economic development. Better clarity, scope, transparency and enforcement of the laws will promote confidence and trust in the formal legal system, the argument suggests. At its core, this argument misses a fundamental yet widely recognized tangent to the rule of law – the role of informal legal institutions. The perception of legal systems perpetrated by the state - formal legal systems - is negative in many developing countries. Corruption, high costs and lengthy time periods for issue resolution limit the ability and willingness of …

Property, Persona, Permission, Deven R. Desai

Deven R. Desai

Information overload confronts us everyday. In such a situation, attention is scarce and the ability to focus attention has value. In short, the explosion of information means we live in an attention economy. As theorist Richard Lanham has posited, the key assets in the attention economy (e.g. writings, images) are part of the cultural conversation which leads to and elevates the importance of intellectual property because intellectual property is the way our society manages such assets. Put differently, authors now have two interests: the copyrighted work and the reputation that travels with that creation as it enhances the author’s ability …

A Positive Theory Of Eminent Domain, Eric Kades

Eric A. Kades

A "Fair Contracts" Approval Mechanism: Reconciling Consumer Contracts And Conventional Contract Law, Shmuel I. Becher

Shmuel I Becher

Consumer contracts diverge from the traditional paradigm of contract law in various conspicuous ways. They are pre-drafted by one party; they cannot be altered or negotiated; they are executed between unfamiliar contracting parties unequal in their market power and sophistication; they are offered frequently by agents who act on behalf of the seller; and promisees (i.e., consumers) do not read or understand them. Consumer contracts are thus useful in modern markets of mass production, but they cast doubt on some fundamental notions of contract law. To reframe the long-lasting debate over consumer contracts this Article develops a superior legal regime …

Law And Biology, Morris B. Hoffman

Morris B. Hoffman

Survey of the impacts of emerging evolutionary and neuroscientific insights into the foundations of law.

An Economic Perspective On The Doctrine Of Unilateral Mistatke: An Remedy-Based Approach, Qi Zhou

qi zhou

: The key economic issues in implementing the law of unilateral mistake are twofold. First, it should avoid misallocation of resources; second, it ought to create a sufficient incentive for acquisition of information. However, the rule of unilateral mistake in English contract law does not serve these economic goals satisfactorily. The existing law and economics literature deals extensively with how to achieve these ends by designing the legal standards for a unilateral mistake which can nullify the contract, with little discussion of the function of legal remedy. This paper offers a remedy-based approach and argues that it has economic advantages …

The Economic Bias In Tort Law, Ronen Perry

Ronen Perry

Economic loss is moving to the forefront of tort discourse on both sides of the Atlantic. A Council draft of the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Economic Torts and Related Wrongs is being appraised and discussed by prominent American tort scholars, and European academics are seeking common ground regarding liability for economic loss in the European Union. The time may well be ripe to focus on an unexplored, perhaps unnoticed, mystery in the common law of torts: the consequential-relational economic loss dichotomy. Consequential economic loss is economic loss that stems from physical injury to the plaintiff’s own person or property. Relational …

Economic Analysis Of Legal Standard For Deceit In English Tort Law, Qi Zhou

qi zhou

Scholars of law and economics have produced a huge amount of literature on how to design an optimal legal standard in tort law to regulate international torts. However, there are few works to use these theories in the analysis of tort law in an individual jurisdiction. In this paper, I apply a law-and-economics analytical framework to the study of the legal standards for deceit in English tort law with an aim to show that the law-and-economics approach could generate new insights valuable to broad our understanding of the law of deceit.

E-J. Mestmäcker: A Legal Theory Without Law (Book Review), Péter Cserne

Péter Cserne

This is a book review of Ernst-Joachim Mestmäcker's A Legal Theory without Law: Ponser v. Hayek on Economic Analysis of Law (Tübingen: Mohr 2007)