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Full-Text Articles in Law

Regulatory Theory, Matthew D. Adler Dec 2009

Regulatory Theory, Matthew D. Adler

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This chapter reviews a range of topics connected to the justification of government regulation, including: the definition of “regulation”; welfarism, Kaldor-Hicks efficiency, and the Pareto principles; the fundamental theorems of welfare economics and the “market failure” framework for justifying regulation, which identifies different ways in which the conditions for those theorems may fail to hold true (such as externalities, public goods, monopoly power, and imperfect information); the Coase theorem; and the different forms of regulation.


Future Generations: A Prioritarian View, Matthew D. Adler Sep 2009

Future Generations: A Prioritarian View, Matthew D. Adler

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Should we remain neutral between our interests and those of future generations? Or are we ethically permitted or even required to depart from neutrality and engage in some measure of intergenerational discounting? This Article addresses the problem of intergenerational discounting by drawing on two different intellectual traditions: the social welfare function (“SWF”) tradition in welfare economics, and scholarship on “prioritarianism” in moral philosophy. Unlike utilitarians, prioritarians are sensitive to the distribution of well-being. They give greater weight to well-being changes affecting worse-off individuals. Prioritarianism can be captured, formally, through an SWF which sums a concave transformation of individual utility, rather …


Book Review (Judith Kilpatrick's There When We Needed Him: Wiley Austin Branton, Civil Rights Warrior), Sophia Z. Lee Jul 2009

Book Review (Judith Kilpatrick's There When We Needed Him: Wiley Austin Branton, Civil Rights Warrior), Sophia Z. Lee

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No abstract provided.


Foreseeability And Copyright Incentives, Shyamkrishna Balganesh Apr 2009

Foreseeability And Copyright Incentives, Shyamkrishna Balganesh

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Copyright law’s principal justification today is the economic theory of creator incentives. Central to this theory is the recognition that while copyright’s exclusive rights framework provides creators with an economic incentive to create, it also entails large social costs, and that creators therefore need to be given just enough incentive to create in order to balance the system’s benefits against its costs. Yet, none of copyright’s current doctrines enable courts to circumscribe a creator’s entitlement by reference to limitations inherent in the very idea of incentives. While the common law too relies on providing actors with incentives to behave in …


Book Review (Risa L. Goluboff's The Lost Promise Of Civil Rights), Sophia Z. Lee Apr 2009

Book Review (Risa L. Goluboff's The Lost Promise Of Civil Rights), Sophia Z. Lee

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No abstract provided.


Custom, Comedy, And The Value Of Dissent, Jennifer E. Rothman Apr 2009

Custom, Comedy, And The Value Of Dissent, Jennifer E. Rothman

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In this essay, I comment on Dotan Oliar and Christopher Sprigman's article, There's No Free Laugh (Anymore): The Emergence of Intellectual Property Norms and the Transformation of Stand-Up Comedy, 94 Va. L. Rev. 1787 (2008). Their study of the quasi-intellectual property norms in the stand-up comedy world provides yet another compelling example of the phenomenon that I have explored in which the governing intellectual property regime takes a backseat to social norms and other industry customs that dominate the lived experiences of many in creative fields. The microcosm of stand-up comedy reinforces my concern that customs are being used to …


Toward A Revised 4.2 No-Contact Rule, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr. Mar 2009

Toward A Revised 4.2 No-Contact Rule, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.

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No abstract provided.


The Poetry Of Genetics: On The Pitfalls Of Popularizing Science, Anita L. Allen Jan 2009

The Poetry Of Genetics: On The Pitfalls Of Popularizing Science, Anita L. Allen

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The role genetic inheritance plays in the way human beings look and behave is a question about the biology of human sexual reproduction, one that scientists connected with the Human Genome Project dashed to answer before the close of the 20th century. This is also a question about politics, and, it turns out poetry, because, as the example of Lucretius shows, poetry is an ancient tool for the popularization of science. "Popularization" is a good word for successful efforts to communicate elite science to non-scientists in non-technical languages and media. According to prominent sociobiologist E.O. Wilson, "sexual dominance is a …


Time Out, Stephen B. Burbank Jan 2009

Time Out, Stephen B. Burbank

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No abstract provided.


Policing Politics At Sentencing, Stephanos Bibas, Max M. Schanzenbach, Emerson H. Tiller Jan 2009

Policing Politics At Sentencing, Stephanos Bibas, Max M. Schanzenbach, Emerson H. Tiller

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No abstract provided.


Law Across Borders: What Can The United States Learn From Japan?, Eric Feldman Jan 2009

Law Across Borders: What Can The United States Learn From Japan?, Eric Feldman

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No abstract provided.


Symposium: Supreme Court Review, Symposium Foreword, Mitchell N. Berman Jan 2009

Symposium: Supreme Court Review, Symposium Foreword, Mitchell N. Berman

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No abstract provided.


Restoration But Also More Justice, Stephanos Bibas Jan 2009

Restoration But Also More Justice, Stephanos Bibas

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This short essay replies to Erik Luna's endorsement of restorative justice. He is right that the goal of healing victims, defendants, and their families is important but all too often neglected by substantive criminal law and procedure, which is far too state-centered and impersonal. The problem with restorative justice is that too often it seeks to sweep away punishment as barbaric and downplays the need for deterrence and incapacitation as well. In short, restorative justice deserves more of a role in American criminal justice. Shorn of its political baggage and reflexive hostility to punishment, restorative justice has much to teach …


Legal And Managerial "Cultures" In Corporate Representation, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr. Jan 2009

Legal And Managerial "Cultures" In Corporate Representation, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.

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No abstract provided.


Law, Society, And Medical Malpractice Litigation In Japan, Eric Feldman Jan 2009

Law, Society, And Medical Malpractice Litigation In Japan, Eric Feldman

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No abstract provided.


The Pace Of International Criminal Justice, Jean Galbraith Jan 2009

The Pace Of International Criminal Justice, Jean Galbraith

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This article examines how long international criminal cases take in practice. It considers the cases of all 305 individuals charged at six international and hybrid criminal tribunals (as of shortly before this article's publication). Contrary to the conventional wisdom, on average today’s international criminal cases do not take much longer than comparably complex domestic criminal cases, once the defendants are in custody. Nonetheless, international criminal cases may take too long to achieve the goal of helping to reconcile the affected communities – particularly where a community has abruptly transitioned from an abusive old regime to an entirely new one. Where …


Originalism Is Bunk, Mitchell N. Berman Jan 2009

Originalism Is Bunk, Mitchell N. Berman

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No abstract provided.


Liability Insurance At The Tort-Crime Boundary, Tom Baker Jan 2009

Liability Insurance At The Tort-Crime Boundary, Tom Baker

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This essay explores how liability insurance mediates the boundary between torts and crime. Liability insurance sometimes separates these two legal fields, for example through the application of standard insurance contract provisions that exclude insurance coverage for some crimes that are also torts. Perhaps less obviously, liability insurance also can draw parts of the tort and criminal fields together. For example, professional liability insurance civilizes the criminal law experience for some crimes that are also torts by providing defendants with an insurance-paid criminal defense that provides more than ordinary means to contest the state’s accusations. The crime-tort separation in liability insurance …


The Perils Of Forgetting Fairness, Michael B. Dorff, Kimberly Kessler Ferzan Jan 2009

The Perils Of Forgetting Fairness, Michael B. Dorff, Kimberly Kessler Ferzan

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No abstract provided.


A New E.R.A. Or A New Era? Amendment Advocacy And The Reconstitution Of Feminism, Serena Mayeri Jan 2009

A New E.R.A. Or A New Era? Amendment Advocacy And The Reconstitution Of Feminism, Serena Mayeri

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Scholars have largely treated the reintroduction of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) after its ratification failure in 1982 as a mere postscript to a long, hard-fought, and ultimately unsuccessful campaign to enshrine women’s legal equality in the federal constitution. This Article argues that “ERA II” was instead an important turning point in the history of legal feminism and of constitutional amendment advocacy. Whereas ERA I had once attracted broad bipartisan support, ERA II was a partisan political weapon exploited by advocates at both ends of the ideological spectrum. But ERA II also became a vehicle for feminist reinvention. Congressional consideration …


Straw, Sand, And Sophistry, Stephen B. Burbank Jan 2009

Straw, Sand, And Sophistry, Stephen B. Burbank

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No abstract provided.