Law and Economics Commons^™

Navigating The Minefields Of Russian Joint Venture Law And Tax Regulations: A Procedural Compass, Christopher Osakwe

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In this Article, Professor Osakwe explores the precarious field of Russian joint venture law and tax regulation. The author gives detailed accounts of the major laws, discusses their evolution, and projects their future course. Additionally, the author notes the continuing influence of USSR law on current Russian joint venture practice. Throughout his analysis, the author provides specific and pragmatic advice for businesses and entrepreneurs considering joint ventures in Russia.

Books Received, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

SYSTEMS OF CONTROL IN INTERNATIONAL ADJUDICATION AND ARBITRATION

By W. Michael Reisman

Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1992. Pp. 174.

LEGISLATIVE RESPONSES TO TOBACCO USE

By World Health Organization Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1991.Pp. 226.

IMPORT AND CUSTOMS LAW HANDBOOK

By Michael J. Horton

New York, New York: Quorom Books, 1992. Pp. 308. $55.00.

THE LAW AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE THIRD WORLD

Edited by P. Ebow Bondzi-Simpson

New York, New York: Praeger Publishers 1992. Pp. 200. $49.95.

Economic Due Process Revisited, James W. Ely, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

In many constitutional histories the presentation of economic issues between 1880 and 1937 resembles a Victorian melodrama. A dastardly Supreme Court is pictured as frustrating noble reformers who sought to impose beneficent regulations on giant business enterprises.' The centerpiece in this tale of wickedness is Lochner v. New York.' Few Supreme Court decisions have been vilified more than Lochner. For years liberal commentators ritualistically denounced the Court's decision. The laissez-faire assumptions behind Lochner naturally were an anathema to scholars and judges favoring government intervention in the economy and redistribution of wealth. Worse yet, this example of judicial activism reflected an …

One Tax Piece Of The Savings And Loan Crisis: Can The Federal Home Loan Bank Board Use The Internal Revenue Cose To Bail Out The Ailing Savings And Loan Industry?, Beverly I. Moran

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In Cottage Savings Association v. Commissioner the Sixth Circuit delves into a little known aspect of the savings and loan crisis-the attempt by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board to use the Internal Revenue Code ("Code") to help bolster its failing constituent thrifts. In the course of its analysis, the Sixth Circuit must articulate the requirements for transforming an economic loss into a deductible tax loss.

Changing Patterns Of Ownership Rights In The People's Republic Of China: A Legal And Economic Analysis In The Context Of Economic Reforms And Social Conditions, Paul Cantor, James Kraus

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article analyzes the legal and economic effects of privatization and the changing patterns of ownership rights in the People's Republic of China. After an overview of Chinese concepts of property rights, the authors discuss the history of China's post-liberation nationalization process and the movement back toward privatization and decentralization. Privatization has led Chinese law toward the recognition of private rights and duties in property law matters. The authors examine China's basis for altering ownership rights and moving in the direction of a market-oriented economy. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China and Chinese statutes contain specific language delineating …

Lender Liability: A Survey Of Common-Law Theories, Frances E. Freund

Vanderbilt Law Review

Lender liability litigation has increased dramatically over the past several years. The increase in claims is hardly surprising when one considers recent multimillion dollar recoveries.' Such well-publicized verdicts against lenders serve to encourage borrowers to defend even routine collection claims by striking out at the lender.

Most often borrowers bring lender liability suits following commercial loan defaults. These suits are based on a number of common-law theories for liability including: breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty,' and breach of good faith, as well as fraud, duress, interference, and negligence. Some suits also raise statutory claims under the bankruptcy laws, …

Intellectual Property In International Trade: Opportunities And Risks Of A Gatt Connection, J. H. Reichman

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Professor Reichman uncovers a paradox at the heart of the debate about bringing international intellectual property relations within a GATT Code of Conduct. On the one hand, the industrialized countries that subscribe to free-market principles at home want to impose a highly regulated market for intellectual goods on the rest of the world, one in which authors and inventors may "reap where they have sown." On the other hand, the developing countries that restrict free competition at home envision a totally unregulated world market for intellectual goods, one in which "competition is the lifeblood of commerce." To unravel this paradox, …

The Place Of Law And Literature, William H. Page

Vanderbilt Law Review

The modern field of law and literature began in 1907 with the publication of Wigmore's list of novels related to law.' The form of that work is significant because for decades, the field remained largely one of reading lists assembled to broaden the perspectives of practicing lawyers. In literary scholarship, law and literature scarcely could have been called a field; critics discussed the effects of law on the work of various writers, often perceptively but their studies were independent of each other and of legal scholarship. In the past decade, however, law and literature has shed its nonprofessional heritage and …

Bankruptcy Law Of The People's Republic Of China: Principle, Procedure & Practice, Henry R. Zheng

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Enterprise Bankruptcy Law of the People's Republic of China (For Trial Use) (the National Act), promulgated on December 2, 1986, is the first bankruptcy legislation applicable nationwide in the People's Republic of China (PRC or China). At the same time, some regional governments have also enacted regional bankruptcy laws with very limited geographic application. The National Act applies only to state-owned Chinese enterprises, while one regional bankruptcy regulation applies exclusively to foreign investment enterprises." The PRC thus has developed two parallel bankruptcy regimes. The introduction of a bankruptcy system in China represents a significant development in the economic relationship …

Are Individuals Bayesian Decision Makers?, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

There has been increasing interest in whether normative models of individual choice under uncertainty accord with actual behavior. These concerns have been much greater than in other economic contexts because of the particularly severe demands such decisions place on the rationality of the decision maker. The limitations of these decisions have widespread consequences, as they provide the rationale for many governmental efforts to regulate the risks people face. Here I explore the issues raised by a Bayesian decision framework, focusing particularly on my analyses of worker and consumer behavior.

Book Reviews, George A. Hay, H. Michael Mann, Teresa Amott

Vanderbilt Law Review

Book Reviews:

The Antitrust Penalties: A Study in Law and Economics By Kenneth G. Elzinga and William Breit

Reviewed by George A. Hay

The Antitrust Penalties was published in 1976. Its main mes-sage is that the only efficient antitrust penalty is a heavy fine and that incarceration comes out poorly by any benefit-cost standard.Later that year, in a celebrated and possibly unprecedented appearance, newly appointed Assistant Attorney General Donald I. Baker argued before a federal district judge that jail sentences were the appropriate penalty for a group of defendants who had just been convicted in one of the major price-fixing …

Law And Social Order In The United States, James W. Ely, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

No student of American legal history can overlook the significant work of J. Willard Hurst, who has been described as "the foremost historian of American law."' A prolific author, Hurst has been concerned primarily with the relationship between law and the economic system. His most recent volume, Law and Social Order in the United States, is an important contribution to the rapidly growing literature in the legal history field. Based upon the Carl L.Becker Lectures that Hurst delivered at Cornell University in 1976, the book ranges broadly over America's nineteenth- and twentieth-century legal past, with emphasis upon law and social …

Budget Reform And Impoundment Control, L. Harold Levinson, Jon L. Mills

Vanderbilt Law Review

Impoundment has become a household word within the past two years, as controversy has raged over President Nixon's cutbacks of funds. Numerous significant governmental programs have been curtailed or disrupted. State and local governments face confusion about future funding. In dozens of cases, the lower federal courts have reviewed the exercise of Presidential discretion during the execution of appropriations, and in most cases the courts have determined that the President acted improperly. The underlying problem evidenced by impoundment remains unsolved, however, since it arises from tensions that build up throughout the budget process of the federal government, from the preparation …

Municipal Industrial Development Bonds, Alfred E. Abbey

Vanderbilt Law Review

Several years ago a national business magazine carried an article styled "You Gotta Have A Golf Course."' The article outlined the efforts of a small town to attract new industry and the awkward realization by the city fathers that they were losing out to the competition because their community lacked such a recreational facility. After this finding, several public spirited citizens raised the necessary funds and constructed a nine-hole course. These efforts were soon rewarded when a large industrial concern located a new manufacturing plant in their city. Industrial development bonds are essentially intended to serve the same purpose as …

Alexander Hamilton And The Historians, Stanley D. Rose

Vanderbilt Law Review

The year of 1957 was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Hamilton--only he was really born in 1755. As befitted such a year,a goodly number of books were put forth by hopeful publishers. What follows will be, at least in part, an evaluation of some of these books and their subject. But first, we ought to ask: Why more of the same? Why more books on a man so well known? We only know the past through the eyes of others. And strangely enough, different eyes see different things when looking at the same subject. In Beveridge's Life …

The Literature Of Sales Taxation, Denzel C. Cline

Vanderbilt Law Review

This paper is limited to literature on general sales taxes and will not include taxes imposed upon the sale of particular commodities, such as gasoline or tobacco. It is also limited to publications by American authors in the last-quarter century. Even so, it is impossible in an article of this size to mention all of the contributions to the literature."

References for legal articles on sales and use taxes and related topics, such as interstate commerce, which are published in the law journals are found in the Index of Legal Periodicals. Another excellent bibliographical source is the Tax Institute Bookshelf, …