Law and Economics Commons^™

Economies Of Desire: Fair Use And Marketplace Assumptions, Rebecca Tushnet

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

At the moment that “incentives” for creation meet “preferences” for the same, the economic account of copyright loses its explanatory power. This piece explores the ways in which the desire to create can be excessive, beyond rationality, and free from the need for economic incentive. Psychological and sociological concepts can do more to explain creative impulses than classical economics. As a result, a copyright law that treats creative activity as a product of economic incentives can miss the mark and harm what it aims to promote. The idea of abundance—even overabundance—in creativity can help define the proper scope of copyright …

Flexible Work Arrangements: Improving Job Quality And Workforce Stability For Low-Wage Workers And Their Employers, Jessica Glenn, Liz Watson

Published Reports

In 2009, workers and their families across the country felt the impact of serious economic downturn, with unemployment reaching a 26-year high. While recent news suggests things may be improving, we cannot forget that for many low-wage and hourly workers -- who now represent over a quarter of the U.S. workforce -- the recession only exacerbated their ongoing struggle to hold down quality jobs while caring for their families.

Low-wage workers face many of the same challenges that the rest of us face in reconciling our work, family and personal lives, but for many of these workers, it's simply a …

The Case For Aerospace And Defense Spending As Economic Stimulus, Mark J. Nackman

Georgetown Law Fiscal Law and Policy Reform Briefing Papers

No abstract provided.

How To Un-Supplement A Tsunami Of Fiscal Proportions: An Examination Of The Supplemental Appropriations Process, Jonathan Black

Georgetown Law Fiscal Law and Policy Reform Briefing Papers

Article I § 9 clause 7 of the United States Constitution makes it clear that “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” This single sentence provides Congress with the sole legislative authority to allocate money out of the federal treasury. Throughout the years, Congress has fleshed out this power through legislation governing how the appropriations and budgeting process should occur. Although Congress has been granted the constitutional authority to make appropriations, the President and the executive agencies that receive the funds appropriated by Congress have made themselves influential partners in this …

Foreign Policy On The Fly: Legislating Foreign Affairs In Appropriations Acts, Ariel S. Wolf

Georgetown Law Fiscal Law and Policy Reform Briefing Papers

No abstract provided.

Self-Realizing Inventions And The Utilitarian Foundation Of Patent Law, Alan J. Devlin, Neel U. Sukhatme

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Unlike other forms of intellectual property, patents are universally justified on utilitarian grounds alone. Valuable inventions and discoveries, bearing the characteristics of public goods, are easily appropriated by third parties. Because much technological innovation occurs pursuant to significant expenditures—both in terms of upfront research and subsequent commercialization costs—inventors must be permitted to extract at least part of the social gain associated with their technological contributions. Absent some form of proprietary control or alternative reward system, economics predicts that suboptimal capital will be devoted to the innovative process.

This widely accepted principle comes with an important corollary: namely, that canons of …

Global Governance: The World Trade Organization's Contribution, Andrew D. Mitchell, Elizabeth Sheargold

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Democracy and administrative law concern ideas of governance, legitimacy, and accountability. With the growth of bureaucracy and regulation, many democratic theorists would argue that administrative law mechanisms are essential to achieving democratic objectives. This article considers the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) contribution to governance both in terms of global administrative law and democracy. In relation to administrative law, it first explores the extent to which the WTO’s own dispute settlement process contributes to this area. Second, it considers the operation of administrative law principles embedded within the WTO Agreements on Members. For example, the WTO Agreements require that certain laws …

Is Law An Economic Contest? French Reactions To The Doing Business World Bank Reports And Economic Analysis Of The Law, Anne-Julie Kerhuel, Bénédicte Fauvarque-Cosson

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The economic analysis of law has provoked strong reactions among French academics, in particular since 2004 when the first of the Doing Business reports was published. French jurists have joined forces to expose the methodological limits inherent to these reports, which rated France a long way behind other legal systems allegedly more able to facilitate business. In its first part, this article examines the various reactions to these reports, almost all of which were published in French only. In the second part, the focus is on the position of economic analysis in French law, its role, and, in particular, the …

The Sec And The Madoff Scandal: Three Narratives In Search Of A Story, Donald C. Langevoort

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay, part of a symposium on narrative in corporate law, considers various portrayals of the complicity of the SEC in the Bernard Madoff scandal--including the Commission's own Inspector General's report issued in September 2009. It considers possible explanations (revolving door problems, incompetence and sloth, etc.) but suggests that the story is deeper and more frustrating, arising out of the relative poverty in which the SEC operates, which in turn leads to habits of thought and action that leave too much unnoticed and undone. The interesting question, then: why the poverty? The essay concludes with a political explanation. While by …

Oversight Of U.S. Trade Preference Programs: Hearing Before The S. Comm. On Finance, 110th Cong., June 12, 2008 (Statement Of Andrew Small, Adjunct Prof. Of Law, Geo. U. L. Center), Andrew Small

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

The Business Case For Flexible Work Arrangements, Anna Danziger, Shelley Waters Boots

Memos and Fact Sheets

The business case for flexibility aims to outline the documented positive effects on businesses when they provide their workers with options to work less or to have more discretion over when, where and how their work is done.

This brief fact sheet lists some of the key findings from research on the business case for flexible work arrangements.

Creativity And Culture In Copyright Theory, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Creativity is universally agreed to be a good that copyright law should seek to promote, yet copyright scholarship and policymaking have proceeded largely on the basis of assumptions about what it actually is. When asked to discuss the source of their inspiration, individual artists describe a process that is intrinsically ineffable. Rights theorists of all varieties have generally subscribed to this understanding, describing creativity in terms of an individual liberty whose form remains largely unspecified. Economic theorists of copyright work from the opposite end of the creative process, seeking to divine the optimal rules for promoting creativity by measuring its …

New Basel Capital Accord: Hearing Before The S. Comm. On Banking, Housing, And Urban Affairs, 109th Cong., Sept. 26, 2006 (Statement Of Professor Daniel K. Tarullo, Geo. U. L. Center), Daniel K. Tarullo

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

Net Neutrality: Hearing Before The Senate Committee On Commerce, Science And Transportation, 109th Cong., Feb. 7, 2006 (Statement Of J. Gregory Sidak, Visiting Prof. Of Law, Geo. U. L. Center), J. Gregory Sidak

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

The Third Moment In Law And Development Theory And The Emergence Of A New Critical Practice, David M. Trubek, Alvaro Santos

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The study of the relationship between law and economic development goes back at least to the nineteenth century. It is a question that attracted the attention of classical thinkers like Marx and Weber. And there were some early efforts to craft policy in this area; for example, under the Raj, some English Utilitarians tried to put Jeremy Bentham’s ideas about law and economic progress into practice in India. But it was only after World War II that systematic and organized efforts to reform legal systems became part of the practice of international development agencies.

Initially, development agencies turned to law …

Public Legal Reason, Lawrence B. Solum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay develops an ideal of public legal reason--a normative theory of legal reasons that is appropriate for a society characterized by religious and moral pluralism. One of the implications of this theory is that normative theorizing about public and private law should eschew reliance on the deep premises of deontology or consequentialism and should instead rely on what the author calls public values--values that can be affirmed without relying on the deep and controversial premises of particular comprehensive moral doctrines.

The ideal of public legal reason is then applied to a particular question--whether welfarism (a particular form of normative …

The World Bank's Uses Of The "Rule Of Law" Promise In Economic Development, Alvaro Santos

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this chapter, the author seeks to disaggregate the World Bank and provide insight on the impact that particular groups have in dominant development strategies. By analyzing the internal dynamics among groups at the Bank, his aim is to illuminate the rise and fall of ideas about development and their resistance to both empirical evidence and academic critique. These internal dynamics include institutional inertia and constraints, groups’ struggle and competition over resources and prestige, and the relationship between groups at the Bank and the governments of borrowing countries.

The argument presented is that the conceptions of the rule of law …

Copyright, Commodification, And Culture: Locating The Public Domain, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The relationship between increased commodification and the public domain in copyright law is the subject of considerable controversy, both political and theoretical. The paper argues that beliefs about what legal definition the public domain requires depend crucially on implicit preconceptions about what a public domain is. When considered in broader historical context, the term public domain has a specific set of denotative and connotative meanings that constitute the artistic, intellectual, and informational public domain as a geographically separate place, portions of which are presumptively eligible for privatization. This idea meshes well with the current push toward commodification in copyright. The …

Misassigning Income: The Supreme Court And Attorneys' Fees, Stephen B. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This past term's Supreme Court decision in Commissioner v. Banks and Commissioner v. Banaitis distorts foundational principles, known as assignment of income law, which help identify the person who must report income for federal tax purposes. The Court holds that assignment of income principles require a plaintiff to report as income the portion of a recovery paid to the plaintiffs attorney as a contingent fee. As a result, the plaintiff is taxed at excessively high rates, which may in some cases equal or exceed a confiscatory 100%. Taxing the plaintiff on the attorney-fee portion of a recovery also undermines the …

What Iraq And Argentina Might Learn From Each Other, Anna Gelpern

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Iraq and Argentina each launched a $100 billion debt restructuring last year. The two cases are rarely mentioned together. Most think of Argentina as the quintessential case of financial globalization gone awry - a lapsed market reformer that sank under the weight of (depending on your perspective) misguided liberalization or its own financial chutzpah, and took with it Argentine depositors, Italian retirees, Japanese banks, and offshore investment funds. Iraq's debt has a distinctly preglobalization flavor. Most of its obligations precede the recent wave of financial liberalization. In the words of Iraq's own advisers, its debt restructuring is a quintessential geopolitical …

Leaders, Followers, And Free Riders: The Community Lawyer’S Dilemma When Representing Non-Democratic Client Organizations, Michael R. Diamond, Aaron O'Toole

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article will explore various aspects of the dissonance between the democratic ideal and the reality of groups in disenfranchised and disempowered communities. We will discuss the intersection of democracy and community action by examining the sociology of groups and the social psychology of leaders and followers. We will also examine the role of, and choices presented to, an attorney working in a community and for local community groups.

Opening Trade In Financial Services – The Chile And Singapore Examples: Hearing Before The H. Subcomm. On Domestic And International Monetary Policy, Trade And Technology, 108th Cong., Apr. 1, 2003 (Statement Of Daniel K. Tarullo, Prof. Of Law, Geo. U. L. Center), Daniel K. Tarullo

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

How To Improve Regulatory Accounting : Costs, Benefits, And Impacts Of Federal Regulations: Testimony Before The H. Subcomm. On Energy Policy, Natural Resources, And Regulatory Affairs, Of The H. Comm. On Government Reform, Hearing On Regulatory Accounting, 108th Cong., Mar. 11, 2003 (Statement Of Lisa Heinzerling, Prof. Of Law, Geo. U. L. Center), Lisa Heinzerling

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

“Head Start Works Because We Do”: Head Start Programs, Community Action Agencies, And The Struggle Over Unionization, Eloise Pasachoff

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In the summer of 2002, the city of Boston watched a fierce battle unfold between low-wage workers who provide child care and the social service agencies that employ them. Boston requires its city contractors to pay more than twice the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour to their employees, according to the terms of the city's "living wage" ordinance. The social service agencies, which receive government subsidies to run their child care programs, claimed that they could not afford to pay this rate. These agencies mounted an intense legal and political campaign, arguing that they would be forced to …

Sovereignty - Modern: A New Approach To An Outdated Concept, John H. Jackson

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article, however, does not purport to cover all possible dimensions of sovereignty but, instead, focuses primarily on what might be thought of as the core of sovereignty - the "monopoly of power" dimension - although it will be clear that even this focus inevitably entails certain linkages and "slop-over penumbra" of the other sovereignty dimensions. This "core" dimension is examined in the context of its roles with respect to international law and institutions generally, and international relations and related disciplines such as economics. National government leaders and politicians, as well as special interest representatives, too often invoke the term …

Regionalism Versus Globalism: A View From The Americas, Carlos Manuel Vázquez

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The well-deserved celebration of UNIDROIT'S first seventy-five years focused on a topic that is of particular interest to the Organization of American States and to the organ of the OAS to which the author belongs, the Inter-American Juridical Committee. The topic of the 75th Anniversary Congress--"Worldwide Harmonization of Private Law and Regional Integration"--implicates one of the several dichotomies with which we in the Inter-American system who work on questions of private international law (and international private law) have been grappling in recent years, the problem of regional versus global approaches to the harmonization of private international law (and international private …

Beyond Welfare Reform: Economic Justice In The 21st Century, Peter B. Edelman

Georgetown Law Faculty Lectures and Appearances

Thank you so much, Mary Louise. I am deeply honored that you asked me to be here today with you and Tomas and Dan to deliver these remarks in memory of Mario Olmos. He was a wonderful role model for the values that have been celebrated throughout this lecture series, and I am doubly honored to be added to the list of distinguished speaker who have preceded me.

Instability In Latin America: U.S. Policy And The Role Of The International Community: Hearing Before The Subcomm. On International Trade And Finance Of The S. Comm. On Banking, Housing, And Urban Affairs, 107th Cong., Oct. 16, 2002 (Statement Of Professor Daniel K. Tarullo, Geo. U. L. Center), Daniel K. Tarullo

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

Consenting To Form Contracts, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this essay, I will identify one theoretical source of the common antipathy towards form contracts and why it is misguided. I contend that the hostility towards form contracts stems in important part from an implicit adoption of a promise-based conception of contractual obligation. I shall maintain that, when one adopts (a) a consent theory of contract based not on promise but on the manifested intention to be legally bound and (b) a properly objective interpretation of this consent, form contracts can be seen as entirely legitimate-though some form terms may properly be subject to judicial scrutiny that would be …

Poverty And Welfare Policy In The Post-Clinton Era, Peter B. Edelman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This is an important time to talk about people in need. There have been major changes recently in public policy toward those in need, and we have seen enough of their effect to be able to discuss the next steps. We have a new President and Congress. A recession is looking more probable by the day. And the 1996 welfare law is coming up for reauthorization in 2002. So this is a good time to look at how we are doing and what we need to do.