Law and Economics Commons^™

Session 1: Innovation In Legal Services, Steven W. Bender, Michael Cherry, Matthew Spencer

SITIE Symposiums

This panel featured two “disrupters” who detailed their experiences innovating in the legal services space. The first panelist spoke about data-driven regulatory reform and the other spoke as an entrepreneur whose product introduces artificial intelligence (AI) into the legal recruiting process. Two additional panelists provided commentary regarding the second panelist’s presentation.

The panel provided insight on the topics of: (1) the legal regulatory process at large; (2) how a data-driven and feedback-oriented sandbox provides an alternative regulatory process; (3) the legal hiring and recruiting process and (4) how AI allows law firms to consider alternative hiring metrics when assessing candidates …

Introduction To The 5th Annual Innovation And Technology Law Conference, Annette Clark

SITIE Symposiums

Seattle University School of Law’s then dean, now Dean Emerita, Annette Clark, opens the 5^th annual Innovation and Technology Law Conference, co-sponsored by the Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, and Innovation Law (SJTEIL) at Seattle University School of Law. Annette Clark has been involved with the planning and organization of the Innovation and Technology Law Conference since the conference’s inception. The theme of the 5^th annual 2022 conference is “deep innovation dives.”

Annette Clark explains that “This conference is part of our continuing efforts at Seattle [University] Law to expand educational opportunities for our students and community in …

5th Annual Innovation And Technology Law Conference: Deep Innovation Dives, Steven W. Bender

SITIE Symposiums

Steven W. Bender, Seattle University School of Law Professor and organizer of the SITIE Symposium series, details the history of the SITIE symposiums and the 2022 proceedings. He discusses how this year's symposium builds on themes and issues raised in previous symposiums and looks ahead to the 2023 SITIE symposium.

Patent Law’S Externality Asymmetry, Peter Lee

Cardozo Law Review

Technologies such as social media, autonomous vehicles, and “big data” analytics generate enormous benefits for society, but they also create substantial harms. Many of these effects take the form of externalities—external benefits and harms that a decisionmaker (such as an inventor) imposes on third parties without charge or compensation. Considering negative externalities, for example, social media networks spread misinformation throughout the electorate, autonomous vehicles threaten the jobs of millions of professional drivers, and predictive policing based on big data can lead to unreasonable searches and seizures. Externalities can cause inefficient resource allocation, and the classic remedy is to “internalize” externalities …

Draft Federal Legislation: Agricultural Economic Empowerment Zones, Samuel C. Kessler

Commonwealth Policy Papers

This draft federal legislation was modified from initial failed attempts to pass Qualified Opportunity Zones, and focused on most bipartisan parts of those attempts to then create a targeted policy of agricultural economic empowerment zones to incentivize sustainability, renewable energy, and upcycling value from biomass to improve local economic interdependence.

Members of the United States Congress and other national governments may make use of this bill draft freely.

Draft State Legislation: Agricultural Energy Net Metering & Power Purchasing, Samuel C. Kessler, Austin Gabhart

Commonwealth Policy Papers

This draft legislation was first authored by Commonwealth Policy Coalition Associates Samuel Kessler and Austin Gabhart in 2018, and is now published in 2022 to provide a method of creating improved Agricultural Net Metering and Power Purchase Agreements for agriculture-based energy developments. Shortly after this time, the Commonwealth of Virginia passed similar legislation directly dealing with renewable Net Metering and eventually Power Purchase Agreements in an agricultural context. Those especially in states which do not have Renewable Energy Portfolios which may or may not entail concerns with those portfolios and stakeholders in the nonrenewable industry are urged to consider implementation …

Draft State Legislation: "A Geographically Targeted Approach For A Preceptor Tax Incentive Using Primary Care Health Professional Shortage Areas (Hpsas)", Julia Mattingly

Commonwealth Policy Papers

This draft legislation was sponsored in the 2022 session of the KY General Assembly as HB 718.

Draft Legislation: A Novel Policy System Of Income & Refundable Property Tax Credits For Sustainable Use Of “Keystone” Stillage And Spent Grain Wastes To Stop Pollution And Surge Business Growth, Samuel C. Kessler

Commonwealth Policy Papers

This draft bill originally formatted by the KY Legislative Research Commission is the minimum text necessary to enact the policy described in the CPP whitepaper publication "Support New Business to Solve Old Problems with Kentucky’s Keystone Waste from Bourbon & Brewing". This publication is also known by the subtitle " A novel policy system of income & refundable property tax credits for sustainable use of Kentucky’s “keystone” wastes – stillage and spent grain - designed to stop pollution risk and surge business growth across the Commonwealth".

Any and all legislative bodies are encouraged to use the attached legislation as the …

Support New Business To Solve Old Problems With Kentucky’S Keystone Waste From Bourbon & Brewing, Samuel C. Kessler

Commonwealth Policy Papers

Provided here is a policy solution from the backside of Kentucky bourbon and brewing to upcycle Kentucky’s “keystone” wastes and grow businesses in the process. Potential effects range from removing the bottleneck on bourbon production and producing GHG-friendly biogas to lowering the price of milk.This full whitepaper brief provides an incentive model for keystone wastes which have a provider and a use. It is equally applicable for policymakers or advocates wishing to place a policy incentive behind waste-to-product upcycling, businesses involved with methane sequestration & renewable biogas energy, and shifting regulatory and penalizing models of pollution into incentive model for …

A Geographically Targeted Approach For A Preceptor Tax Incentive Using Primary Care Health Professional Shortage Areas (Hpsas), Julia Mattingly, Sarah Belcher, Samuel C. Kessler

Commonwealth Policy Papers

Years before the COVID-19 pandemic brought on a health care shortage in Kentucky, its rural areas were already struggling to obtain and attract primary care medical practitioners. Even though the number of medical school graduates in the U.S. has steadily increased throughout the years, there is a general disinterest in rural or small-town practice, and legislators throughout the country have pondered ways to address this issue plaguing communities. Versions of Preceptor Tax Incentive legislation in Kentucky have been proposed in the General Assembly to address care shortages in the state, however, all have been unsuccessful at truly targeting rural areas …

Following The Yellow Burning Road To Oz: The Social And Economic Impact Of Opportunity Zones And Their Potential Expansion In California Amid Wildfires, Nicole Motamed

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

This article will discuss the economic backdrop against which legislation was enacted to spur economic development in distressed areas, focusing on the creation of the Opportunity Zones program established by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The first half of the article will provide an in-depth analysis of the Opportunity Zone incentive and consider its procedures and implications, including the tax benefits of the program and the necessary criteria to be qualified for its benefits. It will also present both the negative and positive impacts that have surfaced since the program’s inception and which have in …

Lawmaking Without Law: How Over Reliance On Economics Fails Financial Regulation (And What To Do About It), Steven L. Schwarcz, Theodore L. Leonhardt

American University Law Review

This Article examines a fundamental failure of process in lawmaking: the overreliance of lawmakers on economists and economic scholarship when designing and implementing financial regulation, to the virtual exclusion of lawyers and legal scholarship. This overreliance leads to regulation that often is based on theoretical models and assumptions that are poorly informed by experience and may not withstand real-world testing. The Article examines how to improve financial regulation by better integrating legal scholarship and lawyerly insights into the lawmaking process. Among other things, that will require law professors to gain the attention, and earn the respect, of lawmakers by writing …

The New Major Questions Doctrine, Daniel Deacon, Leah Litman

Law & Economics Working Papers

This article critically analyzes significant recent developments in the major questions doctrine. It highlights important shifts in what role the majorness of an agency policy plays in statutory interpretation, as well as changes in how the Court determines whether an agency policy is major. After the Supreme Court’s October 2021 term, the “new” major questions doctrine operates as a clear statement rule that directs courts not to discern the plain meaning of a statute using the normal tools of statutory interpretation, but to require explicit and specific congressional authorization for certain agency policies. Even broadly worded, otherwise unambiguous statutes do …

Madison 2.0—Applying The Constitution’S Taxing And Spending Clause To Revitalize American Federalism, Mohamed Akram Faizer

Seattle University Law Review

This article introduces the proposal entitled Madison 2.0 which calls for an enlightened federal government to enact legislation—using its broad ability to tax and spend for the general welfare—to revitalize, as opposed to undermine, American federalism. Part I discusses American Federalism today and the need for an updated approach. Part II explores the government's dysfunctional response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Part III proposes how to revitalize American federalism through the Spending Clause. Part IV discusses how to claw back funds in situations of state recalcitrance and replacing funds with a basic income. Lastly, this article concludes by explaining why the …

Lawmaking Without Law: How Overreliance On Economics Fails Financial Regulation (And What To Do About It), Steven L. Schwarcz, Theodore L. Leonhardt

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines a fundamental failure of process in lawmaking: the overreliance of lawmakers on economists and economic scholarship when designing and implementing financial regulation, to the virtual exclusion of lawyers and legal scholarship. This overreliance leads to regulation that often is based on theoretical models and assumptions that are poorly informed by experience and may not withstand real-world testing. The Article examines how to improve financial regulation by better integrating legal scholarship and lawyerly insights into the lawmaking process. Among other things, that will require law professors to gain the attention, and earn the respect, of lawmakers by writing …

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Seattle University Law Review

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Stealing Organs?, Benjamin Mcmichael

Indiana Law Journal

Every nine minutes, a new person joins a waitlist for an organ transplant, and every day, seventeen people die waiting for an organ that will never come. Because the need for organ transplants far outstrips the number of available organs, the policies and rules governing organ allocation in the United States are critically important and highly contentious. Recently, proponents of a new allocation system—one focused more on sharing organs across the nation instead of allocating organs primarily to local transplant candidates—have gained ground. Bolstered by two separate lawsuits in the past five years, advocates of greater national sharing have succeeded …

Promoting Regulatory Prediction, Jonathan S. Masur, Jonathan Remy Nash

Indiana Law Journal

It is essential for environmental protection that private actors be able to anticipate government regulation. If, for instance, the Biden Administration is planning to tighten regulations of greenhouse gas emissions, it is imperative that private companies anticipate this regulatory change now, not a few years from now after they have constructed even more coal- and gas-fired power plants. Those additional power plants will mean more irreversible greenhouse gases, and these plants can be politically challenging to shutter once built. The point is general to private actors making decisions in the shadow of potential government regulation. Better information about future government …

The Extraterritorial Reach Of Section 10(B): A Wolf Hunt Off Wall Street, Radley Gillis

Emory Law Journal

Born to combat the market effects of the Great Depression, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 protects American investors and maintains American confidence in the U.S. securities market. These objectives are largely accomplished through the imposition of liability from Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and the SEC’s Rule 10b-5. These federal laws impose civil and criminal penalties for domestic insider trading and securities fraud violations. Because Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 only apply domestically, when securities violations occur both within the United States and abroad, the reach of federal law becomes questionable, leaving federal courts with a complex …

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Seattle University Law Review

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Remedies For Government Breach: Lessons From The United States And A Zone Of Appealable Remedies For Southeast Asia, Benjamin D. Black

Brooklyn Law Review

Though international investment treaties may supplant domestic contract law in cross-border government contracts, their limited use in Southeast Asia informs the continued importance of clear remedies for a government breach of contract under domestic law. As investment from China’s Belt and Road Initiative continues to flow into the region, private parties require clear rules and remedies when a government breaches a contract. This note argues that the lack of clear and codified public contract law in Southeast Asia presents a substantial risk to private contractors and that the extreme variance in public contract law is detrimental to both parties involved. …

Section 230 And The Problem Of Social Cost, Stanley M. Besen, Philip L. Verveer

Journal of Law and Policy

This Article employs, with certain modifications, the framework developed in Ronald Coase’s classic article, “The Problem of Social Cost,” to analyze the current debate over Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This provision absolves interactive computer services, also known as platforms, from liability when they disseminate materials that cause “harm” to third parties, “harm” that can take the form of compensable damage of a sort found in ordinary tort cases but also can include broader injuries to social order and cohesion in the form of such things as hate speech and misinformation. The Article begins by pointing out that, …

The Euclid Proviso, Ezra Rosser

Washington Law Review

This Article argues that the Euclid Proviso, which allows regional concerns to trump local zoning when required by the general welfare, should play a larger role in zoning’s second century. Traditional zoning operates to severely limit the construction of additional housing. This locks in the advantages of homeowners but at tremendous cost, primarily in the form of unaffordable housing, to those who would like to join the community. State preemption of local zoning defies traditional categorization; it is at once both radically destabilizing and market responsive. But, given the ways in which zoning is a foundational part of the racial …

The Federal Option: Delaware As A De Facto Agency, Omari Scott Simmons

Washington Law Review

Despite over 200 years of deliberation and debate, the United States has not adopted a federal corporate chartering law. Instead, Delaware is the “Federal Option” for corporate law and adjudication. The contemporary federal corporate chartering debate is, in part, a referendum on its role. Although the federal government has regulated other aspects of interstate commerce and has the power to charter corporations and preempt Delaware pursuant to its Commerce Clause power, it has not done so. Despite the rich and robust scholarly discussion of Delaware’s jurisdictional dominance, its role as a de facto national regulator remains underdeveloped. This Article addresses …

Freedom Without Opportunity: Using Medicare Policy And Cms Mechanisms To Anticipate The Platform Economy’S Pitfalls And Ensure Healthcare Platform Workers Are Fairly Paid, Kim A. Aquino

Brooklyn Law Review

The rapidly aging population, along with the demand for innovative Medicare delivery models such as bundled payment programs have incentivized the use of technology in healthcare because of its potential to cut costs and improve quality of care. Like many industries embracing technological strides to automate and digitize services, the healthcare industry has welcomed new labor markets like the platform economy to facilitate connections between patients and workers with ease. Along with streamlining connections, the platform economy also promises workers flexibility and autonomy over their own schedule. The platform economy’s promise of freedom, however, is not enough to prevent the …

Emergency Money: Lessons From The Paycheck Protection Program, Susan C. Morse

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, was huge. Between April 2020 and May 2021, it provided almost $800 billion to more than 11 million businesses—about a third of all U.S. businesses with 500 employees or fewer. The PPP was also flawed. Treasury and the Small Business Administration faced incomplete statutory instructions and a challenging tradeoff between speed and accuracy in distributing PPP funds.

These flaws make the PPP a realistic and valuable case study; the PPP reveals tools that can be applied to similar distributions of emergency funds. One tool is back-end adjustments, meaning that funds are first distributed and …

Session 3: Access To Financial Services - The Promise (And Challenges) Of Fintech, Joseph M. Vincent, Chris Adams, Lucinda Fazio, Roberta Hollinshead, Sumit Mallick, Sands Mckinley, Jonice Gray Tucker, Tonita Webb

SITIE Symposiums

For many Americans, the American Dream is a dream deferred. Recently, there has been an explosion in demand for diversity, equity, and inclusion in financial services. This has coincided with an explosion of a different kind related to delivering financial services through innovations in technology, otherwise known as FinTech. We have seen a plethora of FinTech applications on our smartphones, ranging from online lending to remote deposit making. While these applications provide potential opportunities to level the playing field for those whose dream has been deferred, there remain challenges.

Session 2: Access To Health And Health Services Panel - The Covid-19 Experience, Annette Clark, Wendy Chalres, Dan Laster, Anna Santos Rutschman, Madhavi Sunder, Margret Chon

SITIE Symposiums

COVID-19 has had a massive impact on the U.S. and the world regarding health care and health care access. Improving access has been the topic of scholarship for many years. It took the COVID- 19 pandemic to bring these issues to the forefront of public discussion. Inequities in public health access, not only domestically but globally, have become apparent in the light of COVID-19. This expert panel addresses the inequities of vaccines worldwide and the concept of vaccine sharing programs. It also explores the role that intellectual property plays in these equity issues and some of the risks inherent in …

Session 1: Access To Legal Services - The Role Of Innovation And Technology, Steven Bender, Stacy Butler, Anna Carpenter, Michael Cherry, Sands Mckinley, Kimball Dean Parker, Miguel Willis

SITIE Symposiums

This expert panel is addressing access to justice problems. People without access to lawyers and legal services suffer in many ways not limited to divorce, domestic violence, and educational roadblocks. This panel will ask what lawyers can do to help, in what ways can technology help or replace lawyers in the delivery of legal and non-legal services. It will also explore different legal services being offered by individuals who do not have a JD, online firms, and developing technology in a law firm owed subsidiary. There are six panelists who are broken into two categories: (1) the innovation and delivery …

Opening Session, Annette Clark, Steven Bender

SITIE Symposiums

This year's conference focuses on the social good, highlighting three access barriers fundamental in law and society - access to legal services (and more generally, justice), access to health and health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, and access to financial services for the unbanked or underbanked.