Law and Economics Commons^™

Super-Statutory Contracting, Kristelia García

Publications

The conventional wisdom is that property rules induce more—and more efficient—contracting, and that when faced with rigid property rules, intellectual property owners will contract into more flexible liability rules. A series of recent, private copyright deals show some intellectual property owners doing just the opposite: faced with statutory liability rules, they are contracting for more protection than that dictated by law, something this Article calls “super-statutory contracting”—either by opting for a stronger, more tailored liability rule, or by contracting into property rule protection. Through a series of deal analyses, this Article explores this counterintuitive phenomenon, and updates seminal thinking on …

The Evolution Of Entrepreneurial Finance: A New Typology, J. Brad Bernthal

Publications

There has been an explosion in new types of startup finance instruments. Whereas twenty years ago preferred stock dominated the field, startup companies and investors now use at least eight different instruments—six of which have only become widely used in the last decade. Legal scholars have yet to reflect upon the proliferation of instrument types in the aggregate. Notably missing is a way to organize instruments into a common framework that highlights their similarities and differences.

This Article makes four contributions. First, it catalogues the variety of startup investment forms. I describe novel instruments, such as revenue-based financing, which remain …

Penalty Default Licenses: A Case For Uncertainty, Kristelia A. García

Publications

Research on the statutory license for certain types of copyright-protected content has revealed an unlikely symbiosis between uncertainty and efficiency. Contrary to received wisdom, which tells us that in order to increase efficiency, we must increase stability, this Article suggests that uncertainty can actually be used to increase efficiency in the marketplace. In the music industry, the battle over terrestrial performance rights--that is, the right of a copyright holder to collect royalties for plays of a sound recording on terrestrial radio--has raged for decades. In June 2012, in a deal that circumvented the statutory license for sound recordings for the …

Freedom Of Contract In An Augmented Reality: The Case Of Consumer Contracts, Scott R. Peppet

Publications

This Article argues that freedom of contract will take on different meaning in a world in which new technology makes information about places, goods, people, firms, and contract terms available to contracting parties anywhere, at any time. In particular, our increasingly "augmented reality" calls into question leading justifications for distrusting consumer contracts and strengthens traditional understandings of freedom of contract. This is largely a descriptive and predictive argument: This Article aims to introduce contract law to these technologies and consider their most likely effects. It certainly has normative implications, however. Given that the vast majority of consumer contracting occurs in …

Computable Contracts, Harry Surden

Publications

This Article explains how and why firms are representing certain contractual obligations as computer data. The reason is so that computers can read and process the substantive aspects of contractual obligations. The representation of contractual obligations in data instead of (or in addition to) the traditional written language form - what this Article calls "data-oriented contracting" - allows for the application of advanced computer processing abilities to substantive contractual obligations. Certain financial contracts exemplify this model. Equity option contracts are routinely represented not as contract documents written in ordinary language - but as data records intended to be processed by …

A Standard Clause Analysis Of The Frustration Doctrine And The Material Adverse Change Clause, Andrew A. Schwartz

Publications

In the darkest depths of a corporate merger agreement lies the MAC clause, a term that permits the acquirer to walk away from a transaction if, between signing and closing, the target company experiences a "Material Adverse Change." Multibillion-dollar deals rise or fall based on the anticipated interpretation of a MAC clause, and invocation of the clause in a sensitive transaction could trigger the collapse of the global financial system. In short, the MAC clause is the most important contract term of our time. And yet--due to an almost total lack of case law--no one knows what it means.

In …

Agenda: Evolving Regional Frameworks For Ag-To-Urban Water Transfers, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center, Western Water Policy Program, Western Water Assessment (Program), Red Lodge Clearinghouse

Evolving Regional Frameworks for Ag-to-Urban Water Transfers (December 11)

The permanent transfer of water from agricultural users to municipalities has become a common feature of water management in several western states. In many cases, these voluntary market‐based transfers provide significant benefits to both the buyers and sellers, but many third parties—including remaining irrigators, rural businesses and communities dependent upon agricultural economies—have been negatively impacted. While some impacts of these so‐called “buy and dry” transfers are largely unavoidable, many can be lessened by temporary arrangements that only shift water to cities in years when municipal supplies are inadequate, such as drought and post‐drought storage recovery, and by consolidating individual farm‐to‐city …

Slides: Pvid/Mwd Land Management, Crop Rotation And Water Supply Program, Ed Smith

Evolving Regional Frameworks for Ag-to-Urban Water Transfers (December 11)

Presenter: Ed Smith, General Manager, Palo Verde Irrigation District, Southern California

25 slides

Slides: Lower Arkansas Valley Super Ditch Company, Inc.: Water Leasing Program, Peter Nichols

Evolving Regional Frameworks for Ag-to-Urban Water Transfers (December 11)

Presenter: Peter Nichols, General Counsel of the Lower Arkansas Valley “Super Ditch” Company, Trout, Raley, Montano, Witwer & Freeman PC, Colorado

33 slides

Slides: Idaho Rental Pool: Rules And Procedures, Idaho Water Resource Board, Jerry R. Rigby

Evolving Regional Frameworks for Ag-to-Urban Water Transfers (December 11)

Presenter: Jerry Rigby, Counsel for Fremont‐Madison Irrigation District, Rigby, Thatcher, Andrus, Rigby & Moeller, Idaho

25 slides

Lawyers' Bargaining Ethics, Contract, And Collaboration: The End Of The Legal Profession And The Beginning Of Professional Pluralism, Scott R. Peppet

Publications

This Article combines contractarian economics and traditional ethical theory to argue for a radical revision of the legal profession's codes of ethics. That revision would end the legal profession as we know it-one profession, regulated by one set of ethical rules that apply to all lawyers regardless of circumstance. It would replace the existing uniform conception of the lawyer's role with a more heterogeneous profession in which lawyers and clients could contractually choose the ethical obligations under which they wanted to operate. This "contract model" of legal ethics, in which lawyers could opt in and out of various ethical constraints, …

Contract Formation In Imperfect Markets: Should We Use Mediators In Deals?, Scott R. Peppet

Publications

This Article asks a simple question: Could third-party mediators be helpful in deals, just as they are in disputes? This Article makes a theoretical argument for such interventions, but also presents preliminary empirical evidence suggesting that transactional mediation may already be taking place.

Transactional Mediation: Using Mediators In Deals, Scott Peppet

Publications

This article addresses whether third-party mediators could be helpful in deal-making, just as they are in resolving disputes. It makes a theoretical case for such use of mediators and presents preliminary evidence that transactional mediation already is taking place.

Contractarian Economics And Mediation Ethics: The Case For Customizing Neutrality Through Contingent Fee Mediation, Scott R. Peppet

Publications

No abstract provided.

Issues Associated With New Developments And Transfers: A West Slope Perspective, Eric Kuhn

Water and Growth in the West (Summer Conference, June 7-9)

8 pages.

Municipal Demands As The Stimulus For Innovation: Tales From The Lower Colorado River Basin, Jerome C. Muys

Water and Growth in the West (Summer Conference, June 7-9)

17 pages.

Agenda: Water And Growth In The West, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center, The William And Flora Hewlett Foundation

Water and Growth in the West (Summer Conference, June 7-9)

1 v. (various pagings) : ill., maps ; 29 cm. + 1 CD-ROM (4 3/4 in.) + supplement (207 p. ; 29 x 24 cm.)

"Conference co-sponsor The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation."

Conference moderators included University of Colorado School of Law professors Gary C. Bryner, James N. Corbridge, Jr., David H. Getches, Douglas S. Kenney, Kathryn M. Mutz, Peter D. Nichols and Charles F. Wilkinson.

Accompanied by: CD-ROM (4 3/4 in.) and supplement (xiv, 140, [49] p.)

Includes bibliographical references

The event will cover a breadth of issues, including demographics and water-use trends, improved planning and efficient use, implementation …

Alienation Of Conservation Easements, Richard B. Collins

Publications

No abstract provided.

Foreword, J. Dennis Hynes

Publications

No abstract provided.

A Colorado River Basin Authority: Opportunity For Sharing River Basin Management And Resources, David H. Getches

Boundaries and Water: Allocation and Use of a Shared Resource (Summer Conference, June 5-7)

32 pages.

Contains references.

Allocating Groundwater Among Nations, States And Tribes, Ann Berkley Rodgers, Carolyn J. Abeita

Boundaries and Water: Allocation and Use of a Shared Resource (Summer Conference, June 5-7)

70 pages.

Agenda: Boundaries And Water: Allocation And Use Of A Shared Resource, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Boundaries and Water: Allocation and Use of a Shared Resource (Summer Conference, June 5-7)

Conference organizers and/or faculty included University of Colorado School of Law professors David H. Getches, Lawrence J. MacDonnell and Charles F. Wilkinson.

Boundaries and Water: Allocation and Use of a Shared Resource is the topic of the Center's annual summer program on water this June. Most of the major rivers in the western United States are shared between two or more states. Often tribal governments play an important role in water allocation and use decisions. International considerations also may be involved in some cases. These interjurisdictional issues extend to groundwater as well as surface water.

This conference will provide the …

Proposals For Promoting Water Reallocation And Efficiency, Gary D. Weatherford

Western Water: Expanding Uses/Finite Supplies (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

4 pages.

Water Conservation Through Integrated Basinwide Implementation, Steven J. Shupe

Western Water: Expanding Uses/Finite Supplies (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

12 pages.

After The Concrete Sets: The Future Role Of The Bureau Of Reclamation In Western Water Management, John D. Leshy

Western Water: Expanding Uses/Finite Supplies (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

23 pages.

Contains references.

Keep The Farmer Farming—How To Eat Your Water Cake And Have It Too, Raphael J. Moses

Western Water: Expanding Uses/Finite Supplies (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

14 pages.

Contains references.

Special Water Districts: Their Role In Western Water Use, Timothy De Young

Western Water: Expanding Uses/Finite Supplies (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

11 pages.

Contains references.

Policies To Enhance Western Water Use Efficiency: Best Of The West, Bruce C. Driver

Western Water: Expanding Uses/Finite Supplies (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

18 pages.

Water Use And The Prior Appropriation Doctrine, George A. Gould

Western Water: Expanding Uses/Finite Supplies (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

24 pages.

Toward Optimal Utilization Of Water Resources: The “Physical Solution", Harrison C. Dunning

Western Water: Expanding Uses/Finite Supplies (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

18 pages.