Law and Economics Commons^™

American Justice At A Crossroads: Remarks Of Thomas J. Stipanowich, Thomas J. Stipanowich

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

In April, 2010, a prominent group of judges, attorneys, academics, private dispute resolution professionals, and policymakers gathered to reflect upon the current state and future of the American justice system. A symposium entitled American Justice at a Crossroads: A Public and Private Crisis was held at Pepperdine University School of Law under the joint sponsorship of the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, the Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal, and the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR Institute). This special symposium edition of the Journal is comprised of select papers and speeches presented at that event and provide thoughtful …

American Justice At A Crossroads: Remarks Of Kathleen Bryan, Kathleen Bryan

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

In April, 2010, a prominent group of judges, attorneys, academics, private dispute resolution professionals, and policymakers gathered to reflect upon the current state and future of the American justice system. A symposium entitled American Justice at a Crossroads: A Public and Private Crisis was held at Pepperdine University School of Law under the joint sponsorship of the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, the Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal, and the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR Institute). This special symposium edition of the Journal is comprised of select papers and speeches presented at that event and provide thoughtful …

American Justice At A Crossroads: Opening Remarks, Kenneth Starr

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

In April, 2010, a prominent group of judges, attorneys, academics, private dispute resolution professionals, and policymakers gathered to reflect upon the current state and future of the American justice system. A symposium entitled American Justice at a Crossroads: A Public and Private Crisis was held at Pepperdine University School of Law under the joint sponsorship of the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, the Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal, and the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR Institute). This special symposium edition of the Journal is comprised of select papers and speeches presented at that event and provide thoughtful …

Economical Litigation Agreements: The "Civil Litigation Prenup" Need, Basis, And Enforceability , Daniel B. Winslow, Alexandra Bedell-Healy

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article identifies the basis and limits of the parties' abilities to define and enforce discovery in an ex ante contract. Despite the deficiencies of litigation, the free, public dispute resolution forum of the civil justice system provides significant value in commercial disputes. That value can be used to maximum mutual advantage only if parties replace the infinite discovery permitted in conventional litigation with the finite discovery contracted in Economical Litigation Agreement (ELA) litigation. This article will help parties to understand the benefit and enforceability of the ELA.

Keynote Address: Civil Justice At A Crossroads , Rebecca Love Kourlis

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

I really do believe that, as your title suggests, the civil justice system is at a crossroads and that, as a result, we all have new opportunities and old responsibilities. Four years ago, concerns about skyrocketing costs, unprofessional gamesmanship, and long delays in civil litigation were the stuff of grousing and shoulder shrugs. We all had a level of fatalism or cynicism about our inability to change any of those factors. Now, that is not true. There is a window of opportunity that has opened-a convergence of various forces resulting in a willingness of decision-makers to consider change. As a …

An Unnecessary Consternation: An Analysis Of The Future Of Eu Arbitration In The Wake Of The West Tankers Decision, Mark G. Materna

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article proposes that, despite the West Tankers decision, parties are still not free to breach the terms of an arbitration agreement. On the contrary, there has been a strong trend by English courts to find ways of preventing parties from breaching such agreements. In short, this article serves to quell the panic and elucidate that the West Tankers decision is not a nail in the coffin, but rather a mechanism to reiterate European courts' dedication to ensuring that arbitration provisions remain a potent force against economic infidelity. Part II of this article will provide a brief background of anti-suit …

Waiving Rights Goodbye: Class Action Waivers In Arbitration Agreements After Stolt-Nielsen V. Animalfeeds International , Diana M. Link, Richard A. Bales

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article first argues that to determine the enforceability of a class action waiver, courts should take a "totality of the circumstances" approach rather than adopting a bright-line rule. A set of defined factors that also allows courts to consider real-world issues facing litigants will provide a substantial framework for courts to interpret this area of the law and will lead to more consistent and well-reasoned outcomes in the future. These factors include: the probable size of each class member's individual recovery, the potential for retaliation against class members, the awareness of potential class members that their rights have been …

Clouded Diamonds: Without Binding Arbitration And More Sophisticated Dispute Resolution Mechanisms, The Kimberley Process Will Ultimately Fail In Ending Conflicts Fueled By Blood Diamonds , Shannon K. Murphy

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

In 2003, under an initiative of the United Nations (U.N.), various nations of the world gave life to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS)-a method by which consumers of all levels could know the origin of their diamonds-with the Scheme only certifying those harvested from legal, government-run mines. The Scheme's drafters believed that, if given the choice, consumers would choose to buy diamonds mined legally, with profits flowing to legitimate sources of power. However, the KPCS as it stands is voluntary and lacks the teeth needed to deter its violators. The KPCS lacks a binding arbitration agreement and needs a …

Law And Economics: Is There A Higher Law?, Kenneth G. Elzinga

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Happiness, Efficiency, And The Promise Of Decisional Equity: From Outcome To Process, Jeffrey L. Harrison

Pepperdine Law Review

Those who resist the teachings of law and economics are rightfully concerned that economic efficiency is largely based on the predictions of relatively acquisitive people about what will make them feel or be better off. Due to a variety of factors, these predictions often turn out to be wrong. The explosion in happiness research would appear to have the potential to close the link between choices and actual outcomes and, consequently, make the concept of efficiency more meaningful. This Article explores this promising advance. It concludes that direct focus on one concept or another of happiness or "better-off-ness" does not …

Compatible Or Conflicting: The Promotion Of A High Level Of Employment And The Consumer Welfare Standard Under Article 101, Tom C. Hodge

William & Mary Business Law Review

The antitrust, or competition, regime of the European Union (EU) differs substantially from that of the United States, because EU competition law forms part of the EU Treaties and is therefore imbibed with the multiple values of the European Union itself. Accordingly, it is by no means clear or settled if the anti-cartel law of the European Union, Article 101 TFEU, must focus solely on a consumer welfare standard or must also consider the broad and multiple policy aims enshrined in the EU Treaties. If Article 101 must balance multiple aims, this would be in stark contrast to Section 1 …

Contrasting The Art Of Economic Science With Pseudo-Economic Nonsense: The Distinction Between Reasonable Assumptions And Ridiculous Assumptions, Mark Klock

Pepperdine Law Review

In this paper I explain that law professors who claim to have proven that the stock market cannot be efficient have based their case on economic models contain hidden assumptions which are nonsense. Specifically, the assumption that investors have no wealth constraint and can borrow unlimited amounts of capital is nonsense. I further explain that the frequently touted claim that many investors are irrational is not relevant to the debate about market efficiency because when real world characteristics of financial markets are imposed - markets clear, budget constraints are satisfied, and investors face credit limits - markets will be efficient …

Uk’S Ratification Of The Cisg – An Old Debate Or A New Hope For The Economy Of The Uk On Its Way Out Of The Recession: The Potential Impact Of The Cisg On The Uk’S Sme, Silvia E. Nikolova

Pace International Law Review Online Companion

The main hypothesis of this article is that the Vienna Convention on the International Sale of Goods has the potential to act as a catalyst for the economy of the UK on its way out of the recession and, therefore, should be ratified, as it will strongly affect the development of the SME sector. This hypothesis will be questioned and evaluated throughout the article.

In Part II of the article, the importance of the SMEs for the current economy of the UK will be assessed. Together with Part I, Part II will form the prism through which the remainder of …

Reconsidering The Separation Of Banking And Commerce, Mehrsa Baradaran

Scholarly Works

This Article examines the long-held belief that banking and commerce need to be kept separate to ensure a stable banking system. Specifically, the Article criticizes the Bank Holding Company Act (“BHCA”), which prohibits nonbanking entities from owning banks. The recent banking collapse has caused and exacerbated several problematic trends in U.S. banking, especially the conglomeration of banking entities and the homogenization of assets. The inflexible and outdated provisions of the BHCA are a major cause of these trends. Since the enactment of the BHCA, the landscape of U.S. banking has changed dramatically, but the strict separation of banking and commerce …

Behavioral Advertising: From One-Sided Chicken To Informational Norms, Richard Warner, Robert Sloan

All Faculty Scholarship

When you download the free audio recording software from Audacity, you agree that Audacity may collect your information and use it to send you advertising. Billions of such pay-with-data exchanges feed information daily to a massive advertising ecosystem that tailors web site advertising as closely as possible to individual interests. The vast majority want considerably more control over our information. We nonetheless routinely enter pay-with-data exchanges when we visit CNN.com, use Gmail, or visit any of a vast number of other websites. Why? And, what, if anything, should we do about it? We answer both questions by describing pay-with-data exchanges …

The Social Cost Of Financial Misrepresentations, Urska Velikonja

Faculty Scholarship

Policy makers, regulators, and academics have traditionally looked for the harm from securities fraud in the easy-to-study financial markets. However, by doing so, they have missed the significantly larger social welfare losses caused by securities fraud that fall outside financial markets. False financial disclosures, which are the most common variant of securities fraud, distort real economic decisions that firms, their rivals, suppliers, vendors, lenders, and workers make, thus distorting markets for inputs and outputs. When the fraud is revealed, every party affected makes costly adjustments. Many fraud-committing firms file for bankruptcy. Their rivals face doubts, called contagion. All firms must …

Direct (Anti-)Democracy, Maxwell L. Stearns

Faculty Scholarship

Legal scholars, economists, and political scientists are divided on whether voter initiatives and legislative referendums tend to produce outcomes that are more (or less) majoritarian, efficient, or solicitous of minority concerns than traditional legislation. Scholars also embrace opposing views on which law-making mechanism better promotes citizen engagement, registers preference intensities, encourages compromise, and prevents outcomes masking cycling voter preferences. Despite these disagreements, commentators generally assume that the voting mechanism itself renders plebiscites more democratic than legislative lawmaking. This assumption is mistaken.

Although it might seem unimaginable that a lawmaking process that directly engages voters possesses fundamentally antidemocratic features, this Article …

Economics Of The Independent Invention Defense Under Incomplete Information, Murat C. Mungan

Scholarly Publications

Patents lead to ex post deadweight loss arising from a noncompetitive market structure for the invention. Many have argued that introducing independent invention as a defense (IID) to patent infringement can increase social welfare by decreasing such deadweight loss at the price of a modest decrease in the number of inventions. This paper considers the effects of IID in a setting where R&D firms have incomplete information about their rivals. Four main results follow under incomplete information: (i) fewer things are invented under an IID regime; (ii) IID’s effects on welfare are ambiguous; (iii) IID is more likely to increase …

Cadbury Twenty Years On, Cally Jordan

Faculty Papers & Publications

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the Cadbury Report, one of the most significant events in modern corporate governance. The Cadbury Report, and its simple two page 'best practices', triggered a global debate on corporate governance. 'Cadbury' codes of corporate governance spread like wildfire. The legacy of the Cadbury Report lives on in the UK with no diminution in the appeal of its voluntary code/comply or explain approach to corporate governance. But there are several clouds looming on the horizon. Comply or explain and voluntary codes of corporate governance appear to have run their course elsewhere …

Be Careful What You Wish For: Thoughts On A Compliance Defense Under The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Peter J. Henning

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.