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Full-Text Articles in Legal Remedies
Punitive Damages In Securities Arbitration: An Empirical Study, Stephen Choi, Theodore Eisenberg
Punitive Damages In Securities Arbitration: An Empirical Study, Stephen Choi, Theodore Eisenberg
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
This article provides the first empirical analysis of punitive damages in securities arbitrations. Using a data set of over 6,800 securities arbitration awards, we find that claimants prevailed in 48.9 percent of arbitrations and that 9.1 percent of those claimant victories included a punitive damages award. The existence of a punitive damages award was associated with claims that suggested egregious misbehavior and with claims that provided higher compensatory awards. The pattern of punitive awards is more consistent with a traditional view of punitive damages that incorporates a retributive component than with a law and economics emphasis on efficient deterrence. We …
Saving Lives Through Punitive Damages, Joni Hersch, W. Kip Viscusi
Saving Lives Through Punitive Damages, Joni Hersch, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
This Article proposes that the value of statistical life ("VSL ") be used to set the total damages amount needed for deterrence when punitive damages are warranted in wrongful death cases. The appropriate level of total damages should be achieved by adjusting the value of punitive damages. Compensatory damages should not be distorted to establish the total damages level needed for efficient deterrence. Attempts to introduce hedonic damages as a compensatory damages component, and proposals to use the VSL on a routine basis when setting compensatory damages awards, are misguided and will undermine the insurance and compensation functions of compensatory …
A Common Lawyer’S Perspective On The European Perspective On Punitive Damages, Michael Wells
A Common Lawyer’S Perspective On The European Perspective On Punitive Damages, Michael Wells
Scholarly Works
Punitive damages are generally available in common law jurisdictions, but are disfavored in civil law systems. This paper argues that the main reasons for the difference are historical and cultural. Roman law and the French Revolution heavily influenced the civil law. Civilians were taught that legal development comes from the top down. They learned to treat law as a system of general principles and to resist anomalies. They found it relatively easy to reject the intrusion of criminal themes into private law. The common law developed one case at a time, with no particular emphasis on systematic coherence. It was …