Law and Economics Commons^™

Enhancing Judicial Institutions: Enhancing Economic Development, Stephane Alia Haisley

Duke Law Master of Judicial Studies Theses

Since the 1980s, scholars and development banks have recognized the link between judicial institutions and economic growth. This thesis proposes to explore the role of judicial institutions in the performance of economies and questions whether enhancing judicial institutions can result in enhancing economic development in developing countries. Since the 1990s development banks have explored the role of judicial institutions in the quest for economic development. Both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have done this through the pursuit of judicial reform efforts in countries with ailing economies. The focus has been on improving the efficiency of the …

Community Economic Development, Legal Clinic Program

Course Descriptions and Information

This clinic emphasizes transactional practice skills. This clinic provides short term counseling in a broad range of small business matters such as corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, intellectual property, copyright, trademark, privacy law, nonprofit organizations, art groups as well as the legal requirements for starting a small business. Students provide direct legal assistance, counseling, representation, community legal education, and informational materials to new and mature for-profit and non-profit organizations, individuals and community groups seeking to better the economic, social, equitable and cultural well-being of low income communities.

Community Economic Development Clinic, Legal Clinic Program

Clinical Programs Brochures

The Community Economic Development Clinic is an in-house small business transactional clinic designed to provide students with a broad study of the growing area of community economic development law. Services include legal business, policy and regulatory considerations that underlie efforts to enhance the economic viability of low-income communities through the development of entrepreneurship and affordable housing.

Assistance may be provided to groups that promote community and economic development in the following areas: community preservation, development and empowerment; drug prevention; homelessness; literacy; micro-enterprise development; social welfare; youth and teen development entrepreneurship; and creating and maintaining low-income and affordable housing.

Missed Opportunities: The Unrealized Equal Protection Framework In Maher V. Roe And Harris V. Mcrae, Amelia Bailey

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This Note focuses on two cases, Maher v. Roe and Harris v. McRae, and argues that they represent watershed moments in the reproductive rights movement because they positioned abortion as a fundamental right in name only. In both cases, the Supreme Court sanctioned severe funding restrictions and refused to grant poor women the right to state and federal assistance for elective and “nontherapeutic” abortions. “Non-therapeutic abortion” refers to those abortions performed or induced when the life of the mother is not endangered if the fetus is carried to term or when the pregnancy of the mother is not the …

Transformations In Statehood, The Investor- State Regime, And The New Constitutionalism, A. Claire Cutler

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This paper examines the changing boundaries of statehood resulting from transformations in the nature and operation of public and private authority over local and global politico-legal orders. Transformations in the political purposes of states are being driven by powerful elites who advance a new form of constitutional governance. New constitutionalism, as evidenced by the investor-state regime, subordinates the interests, purposes, and rights of national citizens to those of foreign, transnational politico-legal, and economic elites. This regime is a highly privatized order that is expanding in influence, both in terms of the commercial activities under its remit, and in terms of …

International Investment And Development, Uche Ewelukwa Ofodile, Mauricio Becerra De La Roca, Qingqing Miao, Irina Feofanova, Aboubacara Fall

The International Lawyer

No abstract provided.

International Financial Products And Services, Cillian Bredin, Hernan Camarero, Alan B. Rabkin, Lorcan Tienan, Walter Stuber

The International Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Can Parallel Lines Ever Meet? The Strange Case Of The International Standards On Sovereign Debt And Business And Human Rights, Daniel D. Bradlow

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This special issue is a cooperation of the Yale Journal of International Law and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). It emerged from UNCTAD’s work on sovereign debt workouts, specifically from its Working Group on a Sovereign Debt Workout Mechanism (2013 to 2015). The working group developed a Roadmap and Guide for Sovereign Debt Workouts, published in 2015. It proposes an incremental approach to sovereign debt workouts that relies on the continuous, progressive development of sovereign debt restructuring practice. This work has inspired the adoption of Basic Principles for Sovereign Debt Restructuring by the United Nations General …

Considering Consequences: Autonomy’S Missing Half, Catherine A. Hardee

Faculty Scholarship

In a subtle but discernible trend, courts, commentators, and policymakers increasingly use autonomy-based justifications to support expanding economic rights. Their use of autonomy, however, is inconsistent with the concept of traditional liberal autonomy that proponents of economic rights embrace. This is because many, if not most, economic choices have some measure of consequences ameliorated by state action.

This Article exposes the conceptual incoherence of this approach and argues that these autonomy-based arguments are invalid when they fail to acknowledge the vital role consequences play in constituting liberal autonomy. It also demonstrates that the failure to account for consequences in determining …

Valuing Spectrum Allocations, Thomas W. Hazlett, Michael Honig

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Observing trends in which Wi-Fi and Bluetooth have become widely popular, some argue that unlicensed allocations hosting such wireless technologies are increasingly valuable and that administrative spectrum allocations should shift accordingly. We challenge that policy conclusion. A core issue is that the social value of a given spectrum allocation is widely assumed to equal the gains of the applications it is likely to host. This thinking is faulty, as vividly seen in what we deem the Broadcast TV Spectrum Valuation Fallacy – the idea that because wireless video, or broadcast network programs are popular, TV channels are efficiently defined. This …

25 Years, Where Are We Now? Global Trade & Sovereign Debt, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Contract Development In A Matching Market: The Case Of Kidney Exchange, Kimberly D. Krawiec, Wenhao Liu, Marc L. Melcher

Faculty Scholarship

We analyze a new transplant innovation — Advanced Donation, referred to by some as a kidney “gift certificate,” “layaway plan,” or “voucher — as a case study offering insights on both market and contract development. Advanced Donation provides an unusual window into the evolution of the exchange of a single good — a kidney for transplantation — from gift, to simple barter, to exchange with a temporal separation of obligations that relies solely on trust and reputational constraints for enforcement, to a complex matching market in which the parties rely, at least in part, on formal contract to define and …

Procrastination In The Workplace: Evidence From The U.S. Patent Office, Michael D. Frakes, Melissa F. Wasserman

Faculty Scholarship

Despite much theoretical attention to the concept of procrastination and much exploration of this phenomenon in laboratory settings, there remain few empirical investigations into the practice of procrastination in real world contexts, especially in the workplace. In this paper, we attempt to fill these gaps by exploring procrastination among U.S. patent examiners. We find that nearly half of examiners’ first substantive reports are completed immediately prior to the operable deadlines. Moreover, we find a range of additional empirical markers to support that this “end-loading” of reviews results from a model of procrastination rather than various alternative time-consistent models of behavior. …

Is The Time Allocated To Review Patent Applications Inducing Examiners To Grant Invalid Patents?: Evidence From Micro-Level Application Data, Michael D. Frakes, Melissa F. Wasserman

Faculty Scholarship

We explore how examiner behavior is altered by the time allocated for reviewing patent applications. Insufficient examination time may hamper examiner search and rejection efforts, leaving examiners more inclined to grant invalid applications. To test this prediction, we use application-level data to trace the behavior of individual examiners over the course of a series of promotions that carry with them reductions in examination-time allocations. We find evidence demonstrating that such promotions are associated with reductions in examination scrutiny and increases in granting tendencies, as well as evidence that those additional patents being issued on the margin are of below-average quality.

The Pricing Of Non-Price Terms In Sovereign Bonds: The Case Of The Greek Guarantees, Stephen J. Choi, Mitu Gulati

Faculty Scholarship

In March 2012, Greece conducted one of the biggest and most brutal sovereign debt restructurings ever, asking holders of Greek government bonds to take net present value haircuts of near 80 percent. Greece forced acquiescence to its terms from a large number of its bonds by using a variety of legal strong-arm tactics. With the vast majority of Greek bonds, the tactics worked. There were, however, thirty-six bonds guaranteed by the Greek state, which, because of the weakness of the underlying companies, were effectively obligations of the Greek state. Yet, on these thirty six bonds, even though Greece desperately needed …

The Obama Administration's New 'Repaye' Plan For Student Loan Borrowers: Not Much Help For Law School Graduates, Gregory S. Crespi

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

In response to President Obama’s 2014 directive the DOE has proposed a new student loan repayment option, labeled the Repay As You Earn Plan (“REPAYE Plan”). The DOE on July 9, 2015 requested comments on their proposed REPAYE Plan rules, and the Plan will probably be open for enrollment in early 2016 for up to 6 million student loan borrowers who are not eligible for enrollment in the generous Pay As You Earn Plan (“PAYE Plan”) because of their pre-October 1, 2007 federal student loan debts. I estimate that approximately 72,000 of those 6 million persons are law graduates. However, …

Aging Disgracefully: Do Economic Laws Remain Rational In Spite Of Changed Circumstances?, Johanna Talcott

FIU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Incarceration To Incorporation: Economic Empowerment For Returning Citizens Through Social Impact Bonds, Etienne C. Toussaint

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Economic Ideology And The Rise Of The Firm As Criminal Enterprise, June Carbone, William K. Black

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Cash Is King: How Market-Based Strategies Have Corrupted Classrooms And Criminal Courts In Post-Katrina New Orleans, 39 Seattle U. L. Rev. 1199 (2016), Olympia Duhart, Hugh Mundy

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

On many accounts, it is a tale of two cities. The headlines and marketing machines tout to the world that “The Big Easy is Back.” But beyond the celebrations and parades, the story for poor Katrina survivors is very different. While many residents and businesses are enjoying a resurgence a decade after Katrina stormed through, others in post-Katrina New Orleans have a different experience. More than ten years after Hurricane Katrina, the city still struggles with systemic failures. These problem areas include housing, health care, mental health treatment, employment, education, and the criminal justice system. All of these challenges are …

Shareholder Political Primacy, Jay B. Kesten

Scholarly Publications

Corporate political activity raises an important and difficult question of corporate law: who decides when the corporation should speak and what it should say? In several cases, the Supreme Court has provided a clear answer: shareholders, acting through the procedures of corporate democracy. While this holding has attracted substantial academic and public criticism, there has been no sustained evaluation (beyond identifying the potential agency costs of corporate political activity) of the possibility that the Supreme Court's appeal to the fraught concept of "corporate democracy," though woefully under-theorized, might be the best allocation of power in the limited context of corporate …

Teaching About Economic Efficiency In Law And Economics Courses: Clarifying The Conceptual Problems, Empirical Difficulties, And Normative Biases Of The Efficiency Criterion, Gregory S. Crespi

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Law and Economics courses taught in law schools are sometimes criticized for inadequately explaining the normative criterion of “economic efficiency” and then applying this criterion throughout the course in a superficial and biased manner that pejoratively labels most governmental market interventions and wealth redistribution measures as inefficient. These criticisms have merit, and in this brief article I point out a significant number of conceptual problems, empirical difficulties and normative shortcomings of the efficiency criterion that one needs to understand in order to be able to effectively counter policy arguments that rest upon efficiency assessments.

The specific shortcomings of the efficiency …

Keynote Remarks, Vanita Gupta

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

In communities across America today, from Ferguson, Missouri, to Flint, Michigan, too many people—especially young people and people of color—live trapped by the weight of poverty and injustice. They suffer the disparate impact of policies driven by, at best, benign neglect, and at worst, deliberate indifference. And they see how discrimination stacks the deck against them. So today, as we discuss the inequality that pervades our criminal justice system—a defining civil rights challenge of the 21st century—we must also acknowledge the broader inequalities we face in other segments of society. Because discrimination in so many areas—from the classroom, to the …

The Municipally Owned Gasoline Station In Somerset, Ky: The Economic And Legal Consequences, Ashley Stearns Hoover

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

What Iron Pipefittings Can Teach Us About Public And Private Power In The Market, Sandeep Vaheesan

Indiana Law Journal

Government restrictions on competition, whether in the market for cars, hotel rooms, or taxicabs, have attracted a great deal of attention of late. As a basic matter, government is not exogenous to the market: a functioning state is, in reality, a precondition for modern markets. Because it establishes the rules necessary for markets to develop and potentially flourish, government unavoidably shapes the bounds and structures of the private economic sphere. And more specifically, public limitations on competition are not intrinsically hostile to the interests of ordinary Americans and can, in fact, advance vital social goals, such as full employment and …

The Final Step To Insider Trading Reform: Answering The "It's Just Not Right!" Objection, John P. Anderson

Journal Articles

This Article proceeds as follows: Section I sets the table by dismissing the notion that economic analysis of law should enjoy some privileged status (as more precise, rigorous, or scientific) over ethical analysis of law. Rather, it is suggested that economic and ethical reasons are best understood as different tools suited for different roles in legal reform. It is then argued that, given the current climate, ethical reasoning is the best tool for overcoming the remaining obstacles to insider trading reform in the United States. Section II begins the ethical analysis by arguing that even if it were admitted that …

The Forgotten Core Of The Telecommunications Act Of 1996, Philip J. Weiser

Publications

No abstract provided.

Don't End Or Audit The Fed: Central Bank Independence In An Age Of Austerity, Neil H. Buchanan, Michael C. Dorf

UF Law Faculty Publications

The Federal Reserve (the Fed) is the central bank of the United States. Because of its power and importance in guiding the economy, the Fed's independence from direct political influence has made it a target of ideologically motivated attacks throughout its history, with an especially aggressive round of attacks coming in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and ongoing today. We defend Fed independence. We point to the Fed's exemplary performance during and after the 2008 crisis, and we offer the example of a potential future crisis in which Congress falls to increase the debt ceiling to show how …

A Tale Of Three Markets: Comparing The Renewable Energy Experiences Of California, Texas, And Germany, Felix Mormann, Dan Reicher, Victor Hanna

Articles

The Obama administration has repeatedly identified the large-scale build-out of clean, renewable energy infrastructure as a key priority of the United States. The President's calls for a cleaner energy economy are often accompanied by references to other industrialized countries such as Germany, hailed by many as a leader in renewable energy deployment. Indeed, the share of renewables in Germany's electricity generation mix is twice that of the United States, and the ambitious "Energiewende" commits the country to meeting 80% of its electricity needs with renewables by 2050. While some praise the German renewables experience as successful proof of concept, others …

Cuba Conundrum: Corporate Governance And Compliance Challenges For U.S. Publicly-Traded Companies, Marcia Narine

Articles

No abstract provided.