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2019

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Rethinking Law School Tenure Standards, Adam S. Chilton, Jonathan Masur, Kyle Rozema Jan 2019

Rethinking Law School Tenure Standards, Adam S. Chilton, Jonathan Masur, Kyle Rozema

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.


Economic Perspectives On Free Speech, Daniel J. Hemel Jan 2019

Economic Perspectives On Free Speech, Daniel J. Hemel

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

The metaphor of a ‘marketplace of ideas’ has long pervaded discussions of free speech in and beyond the United States. For early scholars of law and economics (L&E), the similarities and differences between the metaphorical marketplace for ideas and literal markets for goods and services were subjects of much attention. Aaron Director—the University of Chicago law professor who helped to found the L&E movement but rarely reduced his own ideas to writing— devoted one of his few published papers to the contrast between the laissez-faire approach to speech and command-and-control regulation of other markets in mid-twentieth century America. Ronald Coase, …


What Should Law School Rankings Measure And How Should We Measure It: A Comment On Heald & Sichelman's Rankings, Adam Chilton, Jonathan S. Masur Jan 2019

What Should Law School Rankings Measure And How Should We Measure It: A Comment On Heald & Sichelman's Rankings, Adam Chilton, Jonathan S. Masur

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

There are obvious benefits to ranking academic departments based on objective measures of faculty research output. However, there are considerable difficulties associated with producing reliable and accurate rankings. In this short comment, we offer an evaluation of Heald and Sichelman's recent foray into the project of ranking law schools. Heald and Sichelman are to be commended for the transparency and rigor of their rankings effort. At the same time, it is important to note that their rankings involve a series of contestable discretionary choices and could give rise to potential counterproductive gaming by law schools seeking to improve their place …


Outside Influence On Democratic Elections, Saul Levmore Jan 2019

Outside Influence On Democratic Elections, Saul Levmore

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

The 2019 Indian general election, and especially the enormous amount of money spent on campaigning and befriending voters during the election season, has drawn attention to the question of whether and when “outside” support (in the form of money and other assistance) from companies and persons not directly involved in an election should be forbidden, tolerated, or even encouraged. Common reactions to outside influence are inevitably inconsistent, even if we account for the fact that losers are likely to decry the outside influence that advantaged the winners or, more likely, the incumbent party expected to win. A novel approach, influenced …


A Place For Place In Federal Tax Law, Daniel J. Hemel Jan 2019

A Place For Place In Federal Tax Law, Daniel J. Hemel

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

Drive about 14 miles west from here on Ohio State Route 81 and just when you cross I-75, before entering downtown Lima, you will find that you have arrived in a different capital gains tax regime. The grass may not be greener on the other side of I-75, but the capital gains tax rules surely are. If you sell a capital asset at a gain and plow the proceeds into an investment here in Ada, you will owe capital gains tax today and potentially will owe more tax when you sell the Ada asset in the future. If you put …


Beyond The Marriage Tax Trilemma, Daniel J. Hemel Jan 2019

Beyond The Marriage Tax Trilemma, Daniel J. Hemel

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

For decades, the well-known “marriage tax trilemma” has played a central role in discussions of the tax treatment of the family unit. The “trilemma” refers to the mathematical impossibility of constructing a tax system that imposes the same tax liability across all married couples with the same income (couples neutrality), neither encourages nor penalizes marriage (marriage neutrality), and taxes higher income individuals at higher rates (progressivity). Numerous articles have proposed responses to the trilemma that choose two of the legs over a third or that seek to split the difference among the competing neutrality norms that the trilemma casts as …


Taxing Wealth In An Uncertain World, Daniel J. Hemel Jan 2019

Taxing Wealth In An Uncertain World, Daniel J. Hemel

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

An annual wealth tax, a mark-to-market income tax, and a retrospective capital gains tax are three approaches to capital taxation that yield roughly equivalent outcomes under certain conditions. The three approaches differ starkly, however, in their exposure to uncertainty of various types. This essay seeks to highlight the effect of uncertainty on the implementation and operation of alternative capital taxation regimes. An annual wealth tax is highly vulnerable to valuation uncertainty and constitutional uncertainty, but less so to political uncertainty. A retrospective capital gains tax, by contrast, minimizes valuation uncertainty and effectively eliminates constitutional uncertainty but remains highly exposed to …


Slices And Lumps: Division And Aggregation In Law And Life (Intro + Ch 1), Lee Anne Fennell Jan 2019

Slices And Lumps: Division And Aggregation In Law And Life (Intro + Ch 1), Lee Anne Fennell

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.


Tort Liability And The Risk Of Discriminatory Government, Enud Guttel, Ariel Porat Jan 2019

Tort Liability And The Risk Of Discriminatory Government, Enud Guttel, Ariel Porat

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

When individuals and firms fail to invest in adequate care, the government often steps in, taking costly measures to restore safety or mitigate harm. Under such circumstances, a question arises as to whether the government can demand recovery for its costs. For many years, the answer has been negative; tort law has persistently refused to render negligent individuals and firms liable for governmental expenditures. Yet recently, the law changed markedly. Recognizing that the no-liability regime subsidizes faulty behavior, an increasing number of jurisdictions have established the right of public entities to sue for reimbursement of costs. Against this backdrop, this …


Piece Problems: Component Valuation In Marketing And In Patent And Tort Law, Saul Levmore Jan 2019

Piece Problems: Component Valuation In Marketing And In Patent And Tort Law, Saul Levmore

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

The problems referred to in the title of this chapter concern evaluating a given variable when it is one of several that have combined to bring about a result. In some cases, there is an easy market solution. Imagine that you contract to buy a house and then the beautiful kitchen stove, one of many things that attracted you to the property, is destroyed before you close the transaction or occupy the property. How much should the price now be reduced? Here there is an upper limit based on the cost of a comparable replacement appliance. A more precise valuation …


Small-C Constitutional Rights, Adam Chilton, Mila Versteeg Jan 2019

Small-C Constitutional Rights, Adam Chilton, Mila Versteeg

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

Although constitutions lay out the fundamental principles by which countries are governed, identifying exactly which legal materials are considered constitutional is not a straightforward task. This is for two reasons. First, there is no systematic evidence about the relative importance of countries’ formal, written constitutions—the “Large-C” constitution— versus their broader body of constitutional law derived from sources like judicial decisions, treaties, and conventions—the “small-c” constitution. Second, it is often difficult to establish which legal materials are definitively part of a country’s small-c constitution. We investigated the nature and relative importance of small-c constitutional rights protections by fielding a global expert …


The Architecture Of A Basic Income, Miranda Perry Fleischer, Daniel J. Hemel Jan 2019

The Architecture Of A Basic Income, Miranda Perry Fleischer, Daniel J. Hemel

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

The notion of a universal basic income (UBI) has captivated academics, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and ordinary citizens in recent months. Pilot studies of a UBI are underway or in the works on three continents. And prominent voices from across the ideological spectrum have expressed support for a UBI or one of its variants, including libertarian Charles Murray, Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes, labor leader Andy Stern, and—most recently—former President Barack Obama. Although even the most optimistic advocates for a UBI will acknowledge that nationwide implementation lies years away, the design of a basic income will require sustained scholarly attention. This Article seeks …


The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Rules, Standards, And Judicial Discretion, Frank Fagan, Saul Levmore Jan 2019

The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Rules, Standards, And Judicial Discretion, Frank Fagan, Saul Levmore

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

Artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning in particular, promises lawmakers greater specificity and fewer errors. Algorithmic lawmaking and judging will leverage models built from large stores of data that permit the creation and application of finely tuned rules. AI is therefore regarded as something that will bring about a movement from standards to rules. Drawing on contemporary data science, this Article shows that machine learning is less impressive when the past is unlike the future, as it is whenever new variables appear over time. In the absence of regularities, machine learning loses its advantage and, as a result, looser standards …


Tangled Up In Tax: The Nonprofit Sector And The Federal Tax System, Daniel J. Hemel Jan 2019

Tangled Up In Tax: The Nonprofit Sector And The Federal Tax System, Daniel J. Hemel

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.


Deliberation's Demise: The Rise Of One-Party Rule In The Senate, Kathleen Clark, Tiefer Charles Jan 2019

Deliberation's Demise: The Rise Of One-Party Rule In The Senate, Kathleen Clark, Tiefer Charles

Scholarship@WashULaw

Much of the recent legal scholarship on the Senate expresses concern about gridlock, which was caused in part by the Senate’s supermajority requirement to pass legislation and confirm presidential nominees. This scholarship exalted the value of procedural changes permitting the majority party to push through legislation and confirmations, and failed to appreciate salutary aspects of the supermajority requirement: that it provided a key structural support for stability and balance in governance. The Senate changed its rules in order to address the problem of partisan gridlock, and now a party with a bare majority is able to force through much of …


When Audiences Object: Free Speech And Campus Speaker Protests Articles & Essays, Gregory P. Magarian Jan 2019

When Audiences Object: Free Speech And Campus Speaker Protests Articles & Essays, Gregory P. Magarian

Scholarship@WashULaw

In March 2017, conservative author Charles Murray arrived to speak at Middlebury College in Vermont, invited by a student affiliate of the American Enterprise Institute. Murray planned to discuss his 2013 book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010. Many Middlebury students and faculty, however, deplored Murray for an earlier book, 1994’s The Bell Curve, where he drew specious connections between race and intelligence. Others simply considered Murray an intellectual lightweight who didn’t warrant a speaking slot at the prestigious college. Murray’s critics objected to the Political Science Department’s co-sponsorship of his ppearance and the college president’s plan to …


Political And Non-Political Speech And Guns, Gregory P. Magarian Jan 2019

Political And Non-Political Speech And Guns, Gregory P. Magarian

Scholarship@WashULaw

Constitutional rights depend on justifications. Some combination of theory, his- tory, and practical reasoning needs to establish why and to what extent a given right warrants legal protection. The justifications that courts and theorists articulate for a given right determine the right’s breadth and the specific contours of its protection. Justification has particular importance at the formative stage of a newly recognized constitutional right. At present, courts are building doctrine around the Second Amendment “right of the people to keep and bear Arms,”1 recognized as an individ- ual right just over a decade ago in District of Columbia v. Heller.2 …


Data-Driven Constitutional Avoidance, Gregory P. Magarian, Lee Epstein, James L. Gibson Jan 2019

Data-Driven Constitutional Avoidance, Gregory P. Magarian, Lee Epstein, James L. Gibson

Scholarship@WashULaw

This article uses a case study to explain how empirical analysis can promote judicial modesty. In Matal v. Tam, the U.S. Supreme Court invoked the First Amendment to strike down the Lanham Act's bar on federal registration of "disparaging" trademarks. The Tam decision has great constitutional significance. It expands First Amendment coverage into a new field of economic regulation, and it deepens the constitutional prohibition on viewpoint-based speech regulations. This article contends that empirical analysis could have given the Court a narrower basis for the Tam result, one that would have avoided the fraught First Amendment issues the Court decided. …


How To Save The Supreme Court, Daniel Epps, Ganesh Sitaraman Jan 2019

How To Save The Supreme Court, Daniel Epps, Ganesh Sitaraman

Scholarship@WashULaw

The consequences of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation are seismic. Justice Kavanaugh, replacing Justice Anthony Kennedy, completes a new conservative majority and represents a stunning Republican victory after decades of increasingly partisan battles over control of the Court. The result is a Supreme Court whose Justices are likely to vote along party lines more consistently than ever before in American history. That development gravely threatens the Court’s legitimacy. If in the future roughly half of Americans lack confidence in the Supreme Court’s ability to render impartial justice, the Court’s power to settle important questions of law will be in …


Teacher For The Nation, Daniel Epps Jan 2019

Teacher For The Nation, Daniel Epps

Scholarship@WashULaw

In these brief remarks, delivered at the Hastings Law Journal's Symposium on the Jurisprudence of Justice Kennedy, I discuss Justice Kennedy's impact on American law. I reflect on the events that led to Justice Kennedy's appointment to the Supreme Court and discuss his vision of the Justices as teachers for the nation and how that vision seems to have informed his view of judicial review.


Forum Selling Abroad, Jens Frankenreiter, Stefan Bechtold, Daniel Klerman Jan 2019

Forum Selling Abroad, Jens Frankenreiter, Stefan Bechtold, Daniel Klerman

Scholarship@WashULaw

Judges decide cases. Do they also try to influence which cases they decide? Clearly plaintiffs “shop” for the most attractive forum, but do judges try to attract cases by “selling” their courts? Some American judges actively try to enlarge their influence by making their courts attractive to plaintiffs, a phenomenon known as “forum selling.” This article shows that forum selling occurs outside the U.S. as well, focusing on Germany, a country that is often held up as the paragon of the civil law approach to adjudication. As in the U.S., German courts attract cases primarily through the pro-plaintiff manipulation of …


Proxy Advisor Influence In A Comparative Light, Andrew F. Tuch Jan 2019

Proxy Advisor Influence In A Comparative Light, Andrew F. Tuch

Scholarship@WashULaw

The reform of proxy advisors is on the U.S. regulatory agenda, with debate focusing on the extent of influence that these actors exert over institutional investors and corporate managers. But the debate examines the U.S. position in isolation from other systems. If we broaden our focus, we see that the factors usually cited for proxy advisors’ influence exist similarly in the United Kingdom but that proxy advisors there exert significantly weaker influence than they do in the United States. Why this difference when we would expect a similar role for proxy advisors in both systems based on the presence of …


The Foundations Of Anglo-American Corporate Fiduciary Law, Andrew F. Tuch Jan 2019

The Foundations Of Anglo-American Corporate Fiduciary Law, Andrew F. Tuch

Scholarship@WashULaw

How does legal doctrine form, why does it change, and why do doctrines with a common starting point, in legal systems with a shared heritage, diverge? This essay reviews and critiques a book by David Kershaw that addresses these questions. The book charts the evolution of corporate fiduciary law in the United Kingdom and United States and, comparing the two systems, explains how and why the respective legal regimes evolved as they did. Kershaw weighs in on contested U.S. scholarly debates, confronting the common claim that doctrinal change is less the product of internal logic or strict precedent than a …


Reassessing Self-Dealing: Between No Conflict And Fairness, Andrew F. Tuch Jan 2019

Reassessing Self-Dealing: Between No Conflict And Fairness, Andrew F. Tuch

Scholarship@WashULaw

Scholars have long disagreed on which of two rules is more effective when a fiduciary engages in self-dealing. Some defend the “strict” no-conflict rule, which categorically bans self-dealing. Others prefer the “flexible” and “pragmatic” fairness rule, which allows self-dealing if it is fair to beneficiaries. The centrality of this debate cannot be overstated: corporate law as a field is fundamentally concerned with self-dealing by fiduciaries. Yet a lack of firm data means that this debate has dragged on for decades, with no end in sight. This article makes a simple but powerful point: the entire debate is somewhat misguided because, …


Fiduciary Principles In Banking Law, Andrew F. Tuch Jan 2019

Fiduciary Principles In Banking Law, Andrew F. Tuch

Scholarship@WashULaw

When are banks fiduciaries of their customers and clients? This question is of more than theoretical interest given the organizational structure of modern financial institutions and the broad-ranging functions they perform. In this chapter of the Oxford Handbook of Fiduciary Law, I canvass fiduciary principles in banking law. I consider when fiduciary duties exist and what they require, the range of remedies available for breach, and the various techniques banks use to exclude or modify fiduciary duties. One puzzling feature of the legal landscape is that clients bring actions less often than banks’ size and conduct might suggest, which contributes …


The Regulatory Accountability Act And The Future Of Apa Revision, Ronald M. Levin Jan 2019

The Regulatory Accountability Act And The Future Of Apa Revision, Ronald M. Levin

Scholarship@WashULaw

This article seeks to take stock of the Regulatory Accountability Act (RAA), a set of proposals to amend the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). House and Senate versions of the proposed Act have been pending in Congress since 2011, although the impending advent of Democratic control of the House may halt further progress on the bills in their present form. Some provisions in the RAA are desirable or at least supportable, because they would codify elements of current practice or make minor repairs to the APA. But other aspects of the bill are controversial and troubling. Among them are sections that …


Federally Funded Slaving, Rafael I. Pardo Jan 2019

Federally Funded Slaving, Rafael I. Pardo

Scholarship@WashULaw

This Article presents a new frame of reference for thinking about the federal government’s complicity in supporting the domestic slave trade in the antebellum United States. While scholars have accounted for several methods of such support, they have failed to consider how federal bankruptcy legislation during the 1840s functionally created a system of direct financial grants to slave traders in the form of debt discharges. Relying on a variety of primary sources, including manuscript court records that have not been systematically analyzed by any published scholarship, this Article shows how the Bankruptcy Act of 1841 enabled severely indebted slave traders …


Interstitial Space Law, Melissa (M.J.) Durkee Jan 2019

Interstitial Space Law, Melissa (M.J.) Durkee

Scholarship@WashULaw

Conventionally, customary international law is developed through the actions and beliefs of nations. International treaties are interpreted, in part, by assessing how the parties to the treaty behave. This Article observes that these forms of uncodified international law—custom and subsequent treaty practice—are also developed through a nation’s reactions, or failures to react, to acts and beliefs that can be attributed to it. I call this “attributed lawmaking.”

Consider the new commercial space race. Innovators like SpaceX and Blue Origin seek a permissive legal environment. A Cold-War-era treaty does not seem adequately to address contemporary plans for space. The treaty does, …


Mens Rea Reform And Iis Discontents, Benjamin Levin Jan 2019

Mens Rea Reform And Iis Discontents, Benjamin Levin

Scholarship@WashULaw

This article examines the debates over recent proposals for “mens rea reform.” The substantive criminal law has expanded dramatically, and legislators have criminalized a great deal of common conduct. Often, new criminal laws do not require that defendants know they are acting unlawfully. Mens rea reform proposals seek to address the problems of overcriminalization and unintentional offending by increasing the burden on prosecutors to prove a defendant’s culpable mental state. These proposals have been a staple of conservative-backed bills on criminal justice reform. Many on the left remain skeptical of mens rea reform and view it as a deregulatory vehicle …


Aspiring To A Model Of The Engaged Judge, Ellen Yaroshefsky Jan 2019

Aspiring To A Model Of The Engaged Judge, Ellen Yaroshefsky

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

This symposium essay, relying on the work of numerous federal judges who have changed the course of criminal justice and civil rights, argues that judges should aspire to be the “Engaged Judge” — that is, a judge who acts in the best traditions of the role by engaging in creative and often bold solutions in order to advance a “justice mission.” The article discusses the contours of that justice mission, emphasizing that engaged judges should not substitute their own morality for the law or become result-oriented by tailoring legal principle to fit the judge’s prior convictions. It explores the various …