Law and Economics Commons^™

Rational Choice, Reputation, And Human Rights Treaties, Alex Geisinger, Michael Ashley Stein

Michigan Law Review

Part I of this Review sets forth Guzman's general theory of international law with specific consideration of the way reputation influences state behavior. Part II then tests Guzman's overarching thesis by applying it to human rights treaties and concludes that explaining states' entry into human rights treaties requires a broader conception of reputation than Rational Choice allows.

Mtic (Carousel) Fraud: Twelve Ways Forward; Two Ways "Preferred" - Has The Technology-Based Administrative Solution Been Rejected?, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

In a May 31, 2006 Communication to the Council, the European Parliament, and the European Economic and Social Committee, the European Commission indicated a need to develop a co-ordinated strategy to improve the fight against fiscal fraud [COM(2006) 254 final]. Although the Communication considers fiscal fraud broadly (VAT, excise duties and direct taxes) the most pressing need seems to be for a VAT strategy that will effectively deal with MTIC (Missing Trader Intra-Community) or carousel fraud. To this end the Commission hosted a conference: Fiscal Fraud - Tackling VAT Fraud: Possible Ways Forward. The March 29, 2007 conference was constructed …

Accredited Indians: Increasing The Flow Of Private Equity Into Indian Country As A Domestic Emerging Market, Gavin Clarkson

Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009

Indian Country is America’s domestic emerging market, and as in a number of emerging markets, many successful businesses in Indian Country are starving for expansion capital. The US Treasury estimates that the private equity deficit in Indian Country is $44 billion. While the handful of wealthier tribes might be logical investors in private equity funds deploying capital in Indian Country, the existing securities laws present a significant impediment. In particular, Regulation D of the Securities Act of 1933 does not treat tribes as “accredited investors,” thus denying those tribes the ability to participate in the private equity market. Since there …

Federal Fairness To State Taxpayers: Irrationality, Unfunded Mandates, And The "Salt" Deduction, Brian Galle

Michigan Law Review

By sheer dollars alone, the largest impact of the Alternative Minimum Tax is to deny many taxpayers the deduction for the taxes they paid to their state and local governments under § 164 of the Internal Revenue Code. This Article provides a fine-grained analysis of the overall fairness of the state-andlocal- tax deduction--and, by implication, the fairness of its partial repeal through the Alternative Minimum Tax. I offer for the first time a close examination of how newly understood limits on taxpayer mobility and rationality might affect individuals' choices of bundles of local taxes and localgovernment services, which in turn …

Help Wanted: Looking For A Visa System The Promotes The U.S. Economy And National Security, Jonathan G. Goodrich

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Women, Re-Entry And Everyday Life: Time To Work?, Dina R. Rose, Venezia Michalsen, Dawn R. Wiest, Anupa Fabian

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This study focuses on women at various stages of re-entry into the community after involvement with the criminal justice system. In particular, it takes a close look at how the participants in the study manage their time in the face of the types of competing demands that are all too common to most people.

Close To Crucial: The H-2b Visa Program Must Evolve, But Must Endure, Lindsay M. Pickral

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Money Or Nothing: The Adverse Environmental Consequences Of Uncompensated Land Use Controls, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

The conventional wisdom holds that requiring compensation for environmental land use controls would severely limit environmental protection efforts. There are increasing reasons to question this assumption. Both economic theory and recent empirical research--focused primarily on the Endangered Species Act but potentially applicable to other environmental regulations that create similar incentives--demonstrate that failing to compensate private landowners for the costs of regulation discourages voluntary conservation efforts and can encourage the destruction of environmental resources. The lack of a compensation requirement also means that land use regulation is "underpriced" as compared to other environmental protection measures for which government agencies must pay. …

Zappers: Tax Fraud, Technology And Terrorist Funding, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

"Zappers," or automated sales suppression devices, have brought unheard of efficiencies and economies of scale to a very simple tax fraud - skimming cash sales at point of sale (POS) terminals (electronic cash registers). Until recently the largest tax fraud case in Connecticut, also the "largest computer driven tax-evasion case in the nation," was a zapper case. Stew Leonard's Dairy in Norwalk Connecticut skimmed $17 million in receipts and hid the cash in St. Martin (a Caribbean island). Talal Chahine and his wife, Elfat El Aouar, owners of the La Shish restaurant chain in Detroit Michigan have the dubious honor …

It-Apas - Vertical Harmonization Of Transfer - Pricing Standards, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

The World Customs Organization (WCO) and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have begun considering the harmonization of transfer pricing norms among income tax, customs and VAT regimes. Two conferences have been organized in May of 2006 and 2007.

These conferences have concluded so far: (a) that more analysis is needed; (b) that harmonization will require adjustments on all sides; and (c) that pilot projects (real world statutory and administrative efforts to harmonize) or case studies in harmonization (hypothetical fact patterns) are needed to facilitate consideration. This paper assesses the three basic paths being pursued at the present …

Economics, Law And Institutions: The Shaping Of Chinese Competition Law, David J. Gerber

All Faculty Scholarship

China has been considering enactment of an anti-monopoly (antitrust) law since 1993, and it has now enacted such a law. Given the potential importance of this legislation, there is much uncertainty about what the enactment means and what roles it is likely to play in influencing the development of the Chinese economy. This article applies a neo-institutionalist analysis in examining some of the factors that have influenced the shaping of the legislation and that are likely to influence the operation of competition law and its organizations. The main argument is that the central dynamic in both the creation of the …

Turned On Its Head?: Norms, Freedom, And Acceptable Terms In Internet Contracting, Richard Warner

All Faculty Scholarship

Is the Internet turning contract law on its head? Many commentators contend it is. Precisely this issue arises in current controversies over end user license agreements (EULAs) and Terms of Use agreements (TOUs, the agreements governing our use of web sites). Commentators complain that, in both cases, the formation process unduly restricts buyers’ freedom; and, that sellers and web site owners exploit the process to impose terms that deprive consumers of important intellectual property and privacy rights. The courts ignore the criticisms and routinely enforce EULAs and TOUs. There is truth on both sides of this court/commentator divide. EULAs and …

Internet Nondiscrimination Principles: Commercial Ethics For Carriers And Search Engines, Frank Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

Unaccountable power at any layer of online life can stifle innovation elsewhere. Dominant search engines rightly worry that carriers will use their control of the physical layer of internet infrastructure to pick winners among content and application providers. Though they advocate net neutrality, they have been much less quick to recognize the threat to openness and fair play their own practices may pose.

Just as dominant search engines fear an unfairly tiered online world, they should be required to provide access to their archives and indices in a nondiscriminatory manner. If dominant search engines want carriers to disclose their traffic …

Empowering People With The Right To Acquire Capital With The Earning Of Capital: A Binary Approach To The Economic Empowerment Of Subordinated People, Robert Ashford

St. Thomas Law Review

Based on "binary economics" this essay suggests that one overlooked way to empower economically subordinated people in a market economy is to universalize the right to acquire capital with the earnings of capital. This right is rarely specifically identified or discussed in law schools. Although ostensibly open to all people, as a practical matter the right to aquire with the earnings of capital is presently concentrated primarily in less than 5% of the population.' The concentration of the right to acquire capital with the earnings of capital helps to explain why poor people remain subordinated. Foundationally distinct from classical, neoclassical, …

Can A State Or A Head Of State Claim The Benefit Of Immunities In Case An International Crime Has Been Committed?, Brigitte Stern

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

I propose to deal with a topic which is at the crossroads of what I see as the main tension in international law today. This is the tension-not to say more-between state sovereignty, on one side, and the protection of the human rights of individuals on the other.

Selling The Payments: Predatory Lending Goes Primetime, 41 J. Marshall L. Rev. 587 (2008), Dustin Fisher

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Social Security: Principles To Guide Reform, 41 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1061 (2008), Kathryn L. Moore

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

E-Contract Doctrine 2.0: Standard Form Contracting In The Age Of Online User Participation , Shmuel I. Becher, Tal Z. Zarsky

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The growing popularity of e-commerce transactions revives the perennial question of consumer contract law: should non-salient provisions of consumer standard form contracts be enforced? With the focus presently on an ex-ante analysis, scholars debate whether consumers can and should read standardized terms at the time of contracting. In today's information age, such a focus might be misguided. The online realm furnishes various tools, so-called "Web 2.0" applications, which encourage the flow of information from experienced to prospective consumers. This Article, therefore, reframes the analysis of online consumer contracts while taking into account this new flow of information. In doing so, …

Hedonic Adaptation And The Settlement Of Civil Lawsuits, John Bronsteen, Christopher J, Buccafusco, Jonathan S. Masur

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay examines the burgeoning psychological literature on happiness and hedonic adaptation (a person's capacity to preserve or recapture her level of happiness by adjusting to changed circumstances), bringing this literature to bear on the probability of pretrial settlement in civil litigation. The existing economic and behavioral models of settlement are incomplete because they do not incorporate the effect of adaptation on the sum for which a plaintiff is willing to accept an offer. When an individual first suffers a serious injury, she will likely predict that the injury will greatly diminish her future happiness. However, during the time that …

The Vesting, Modification, And Financing Of Public Retiree Health Benefits In Light Of New Accounting Rules, 41 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1147 (2008), John Sanchez

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Telling Differences: Observational Equivalence, Externalities, And Wrongful Convictions, Manuel A. Utset

Scholarly Publications

We must begin with the mistake and transform it into what is true. That is, we must uncover the sources of error; otherwise hearing what is true won’t help us. It cannot penetrate when something is taking its place. To convince someone of what is true, it is not enough to state it; we must find the road from error to truth.

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Remarks on Frazier's Golden Bough 1e (Rush Rhees ed., A.C. Miles trans., 1979 (emphasis in original).

Implementing A New City Charter: Thoughts On My Tenure As Corporation Counsel In A Time Of Transition, O. Peter Sherwood

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Beyond Microsoft: Intellectual Property, Peer Production And The Law's Concern With Market Dominance, 18 Fordham Intell. Prop. Media & Ent. L.J. 291 (2008), Daryl Lim

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Welfare Reform In A Global Economy, 11 J. Gender Race & Just. 209 (2008), Steven D. Schwinn

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

An Empirical Economic Analysis Of The 2005 Bankruptcy Reforms, 24 Emory Bankr. Dev. J. 327 (2008), Thomas Evans, Paul B. Lewis

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Is Fame All There Is? - Beating Global Monopolists At Their Own Marketing Game, 40 Geo. Wash. Int'l L. Rev. 123 (2008), Doris E. Long

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

In the global economy of the twenty-first century, "coca-colanization" has become a painful economic reality for developing nations. With new branding strategies and a legal protection regime that favors the famous marks of global monopolists, local businesses are not only losing market share, they are also losing their ability to compete in a new environment where leveraged marks often have little relevance to the actual value of the products or services for local consumers. To counter these trends, and add rationality to the global trademark regime, developing countries must develop new strategies and a conscious policy that not only values …

Does Fraud Pay? An Empirical Analysis Of Attorney's Fees Provisions In Consumer Fraud Statutes, 56 Clev. St. L. Rev. 483 (2008), Debra Pogrund Stark, Jessica M. Choplin

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Deconstructing Equity: Public Ownership, Agency Costs, And Complete Capital Markets, Ronald J. Gilson, Charles K. Whitehead

Faculty Scholarship

The traditional law and finance focus on agency costs presumes that the premise that diversified public shareholders are the cheapest risk bearers is immutable. In this Essay, we raise the possibility that changes in the capital markets have called this premise into question, drawn into sharp relief by the recent private equity wave in which the size and range of public companies being taken private expanded signficantly. In brief, we argue that private owners, in increasingly complete markets, can transfer risk in discrete slices to counterparties who, in turn, can manage or otherwise diversify away those risks they choose to …

Sentencing High-Loss Corporate Insider Frauds After Booker, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

The Federal Sentencing Guidelines have for some years prescribed substantial sentences for high-level corporate officials convicted of large frauds. Guidelines sentences for offenders of this type moved higher in 2001 with the passage of the Economic Crime Package amendments to the Guidelines, and higher still in the wake of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Today, any corporate insider convicted of even a moderately high-loss fraud is facing a guideline range measured in decades, or perhaps even mandatory life imprisonment. Successful sentencing advocacy on behalf of such defendants requires convincing the court to impose a sentence outside (in many cases, far …

Exiling The Poor: The Clash Of Redevelopment And Fair Housing In Post-Katrina New Orleans, Anita Sinha, Judith Browne-Dianis

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.