Law and Economics Commons^™

Computable Contracts, Harry Surden

Publications

This Article explains how and why firms are representing certain contractual obligations as computer data. The reason is so that computers can read and process the substantive aspects of contractual obligations. The representation of contractual obligations in data instead of (or in addition to) the traditional written language form - what this Article calls "data-oriented contracting" - allows for the application of advanced computer processing abilities to substantive contractual obligations. Certain financial contracts exemplify this model. Equity option contracts are routinely represented not as contract documents written in ordinary language - but as data records intended to be processed by …

Institutionalization, Investment Adviser Regulation, And The Hedge Fund Problem, Anita Krug

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article contends that more effective regulation of investment advisers could be achieved by recognizing that the growth of hedge funds, private equity funds, and other private funds in recent decades is a manifestation of institutionalization in the investment advisory context. That is, investment advisers today commonly advise these “institutions,” which have supplanted other, smaller investors as advisory clients. However, the federal securities statute governing investment advisers, the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, does not address the role of private funds as institutions that now intermediate those smaller investors’ relationships to investment advisers. Consistent with that failure, investment adviser regulation …

Welfare Enhancing Regulation Exemptions, Murat C. Mungan

Scholarly Publications

Sanctions for regulation violations are used to deter conduct which could potentially result in great social harms. This practice over-deters talented entities and under-deters untalented entities, which leads to social losses. This paper analyzes whether and how such social losses can be mitigated. I show that this can be achieved by allowing regulatees to purchase passes exempting them from regulations at appropriate prices.

Memo To The Sec On The Proposed Rule On Disclosure Of Payments By Resource Extraction Issuers, Perrine Toledano

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

CCSI strongly supports the transparency of contracts and tax flows. CCSI shares the belief of many stakeholders that transparency is essential to leverage extractive industries for sustainable development and is in the mutual interest of all stakeholders. However, some industry players continue to voice the concern that increased transparency would be harmful for their business. Therefore, CCSI is working to also establish the business case for transparency.

In one such case, some industry players have been lobbying against the regulations developed by the Security and Exchange Commission to implement the mandatory disclosure provisions of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform …

Plus Factors And Agreement In Antitrust Law, William E. Kovacic, Robert C. Marshall, Leslie M. Marx, Halbert L. White

Michigan Law Review

Plus factors are economic actions and outcomes, above and beyond parallel conduct by oligopolistic firms, that are largely inconsistent with unilateral conduct but largely consistent with explicitly coordinated action. Possible plus factors are typically enumerated without any attempt to distinguish them in terms of a meaningful economic categorization or in terms of their probative strength for inferring collusion. In this Article, we provide a taxonomy for plus factors as well as a methodology for ranking plus factors in terms of their strength for inferring explicit collusion, the strongest of which are referred to as "super plus factors."

United States Food Law Update: Moving Toward A More Balanced Food Regulatory Regime, A. Bryan Endres, Nicholas R. Johnson

Journal of Food Law & Policy

For decades, the federal government has played a significant role in promoting healthy eating. In the early 1900s, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) promoted a foundational diet of milk, proteins, fruits and vegetables, and grains. Most Americans are at least somewhat familiar, although perhaps confused, with the more nuanced healthy eating recommendations contained in the food pyramid - first employed in 1992. And virtually every American has experienced the federally supported school lunch program. In the first half of 2011, these two iconic programs underwent significant change as part of a stepped-up effort to improve the health of …

Investment Treaty Disputes: Ideological Fault Lines And An Evolving Zeitgeist, Locknie Hsu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The zeitgeist of the 21st century in the field of investment treaty arbitrations comprises a rise in the number of such arbitrations and accompanying observations on the unwieldy jurisprudential effects of such a rise. The international investment arbitration community is alive with discussion over these effects, which discussion includes an examination of the value of prior awards as precedents.' The existing regime based on treaty interpretation clearly provides no formal system of precedent and the 'players' (read: arbitrators) change from dispute to dispute as investment arbitration tribunals do not fall within a single, neat judicial hierarchical system. With the number …

German Vat Compliance: One Step Closer To Automated Third-Party Solutions, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Recent developments in German VAT compliance, notably (a) the imposition of criminal penalties for failing to immediately amend a preliminary return that is known to be in error [Bundesgerichtshof decision of March 17, 2009, No. BGH 1 StR 342/08], when considered in tandem with (b) amendments to the voluntary disclosure rules, Gesetz zur Vebesserung der Bekämpfung von Geldwäsche und Steuerhinterziehung, it is clear that the German VAT compliance landscape has changed dramatically in the past year.

Taken as a whole, the German rules strongly encourage internal audits, self-reviews, and immediate self-disclosures of errors in previously filed returns and taxes paid. …

False Efficiency And Missed Opportunities In Law And Economics, Shawn J. Bayern

Scholarly Publications

This Article points out a simple flaw common to many law-and-economics analyses, ranging from fundamental models like the Hand Formula to narrower arguments like those that oppose the doctrine of unconscionability.

The flaw is straightforward: economic analyses of law often assume, either implicitly or explicitly that when it is more efficient for an activity to occur than for it not to occur it is efficient for legal rules to encourage the activity. Even on grounds of efficiency alone, however, knowing in isolation whether an activity produces more wealth than its absence is insufficient to conclude that the activity is efficient. …

Bulls, Bears, And Pigs: Revisiting The Legal Minefield Of Virginia Fraudulent Transfer Law, Isaac A. Mcbeth, Landon C. Davis Iii

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Re-Appraising The Appraisers: Expanding Liability To Buyers And Borrowers In The Story Of The 2008 Financing Industry Crisis, Shelby D. Green

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

On the surface, suing in negligence seems the most promising avenue for recovery against appraisers, because liability depends on an examination of defendant's conduct alone and does not require an examination or defendant's mental state to show intent or agreement. But historically insuperable hurdles have operated to prevent recovery under this seemingly simple cause of action. One hurdle is lack of privity. The appraiser's legal relationship is with the hiring party--the lender--to assess the risks of the loan transaction and not with the purchaser, who may rely on the appraisal in making the decision to purchase. Because of the lack …

Efficient Breach Of International Law: Optimal Remedies, 'Legalized Noncompliance,' And Related Issues, Eric A. Posner, Alan O. Sykes

Michigan Law Review

In much of the scholarly literature on international law, there is a tendency to condemn violations of the law and to leave it at that. If all violations of international law were indeed undesirable, this tendency would be unobjectionable. We argue in this Article, however that a variety of circumstances arise under which violations of international law are desirable from an economic standpoint. The reasons why are much the same as the reasons why nonperformance of private contracts is sometimes desirable- the concept of "efficient breach," familiar to modern students of contract law, has direct applicability to international law. As …

Issue 1: Annual Survey 2011 Table Of Contents

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Industry-Specific Vat In Michigan - Objective Valuation In The Retail Gasoline Trade, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

New York adopted an industry-specific value added tax (VAT) to solve problems with virtual intermediaries (room remarketers) under its hotel accommodations tax. The New York VAT resembles the VAT used in the European Union (EU). It is a credit-invoice VAT that subjectively values supplies.

Michigan has also adopted an industry-specific credit-invoice VAT, however the targeted industry is the retail gasoline trade. The valuation method is objective, rather than subjective. In valuing supplies objectively rather than subjectively, the Michigan VAT resembles the exception provisions that are found in most VATs around the globe. Objective valuations are used in VATs when dealing …

Land Use For Economic Development In Tough Financial Times, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The recession hit cities hard. Basic municipal staffs and services are being cut, debt is being restructured, capital projects delayed, and other cost cutting measures reported. The Congressional Budget Office reports that by November of last year there were 241,000 fewer municipal employees than there were three years earlier when the recession began. In its most recent report from city finance officers, the National League of Cities states that city spending cutbacks since 2009 are the largest since the survey was first taken, over twenty-five years ago. Despite this serious trend, municipalities have not defaulted in debt payment and there …

Indonesia: Problem Encountered In Some Unresolved Boundaries And The Outermost Island Issues, Etty R. Agoes.

Indonesian Journal of International Law

Within the framework of national integrity the ocean possesses two key aspects that is, of security and prosperity. The demarcation of the outer limits of national mari- time territory and jurisdiction including delimitation of boundaries with neighboring countries will provide a legal basis for a number of marine activities such as defense, fisheries, navigation, seabed and subsoil exploration and exploitation, marine tourism and others. Boundary issues for Indonesia, whether on land, at sea even in the air, have always been a matter of national priority. At present, Indonesia still have some unresolved boundary delimitation with its neighboring countries. The completion …

Once More Unto The Breach: Some Thoughts On The Future Of The Eez, Guy Des Rosiers

Indonesian Journal of International Law

By public international law standards, the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) maintains a relative newcomer, the product of State practice following the end of the Second World War and multilateral negotiations culminating with the entry into force, in November 1994, of the 1982 United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, In defining the EEZ, the Convention has created a sui generis legal regime over vast areas that were previously part of the high seas. Neither Grotian nor Seldenian in spirit, the EEZ regime forgoes the absolute language of territory and sovereignty in favor of discrete sets of rights and …

Geographical Indications Under International Intellectual Property Law: An Indonesian Perspective, Mariana Molnar Gabor Warokka

Indonesian Journal of International Law

There are currently two systems for the registration of GI and Appellations of Origin. First, the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration of 1958. Second, the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks and the Madrid Protocol of 1989 for countries that protect GI under the trade mark regime. Indonesia has provided for GI protection under its Trade Mark Law No. 15 of 2001, and the appertaining Government Regulation No. 51 of 2007 concerning Geographical Indication. Several cases have been reported of Indonesian GI potential products, such as Kopi Toraja and Kopi …

Principle Of Responsibilities And Sanctions In Pollutions Of The Marine Environment By Offshore Minning, Dina Sunyowati

Indonesian Journal of International Law

In a period of 5 (five) years of pollution of the marine environment caused by exploration and exploitation on the continental shelf and the area (the seabed) is increasing. Like the marine pollution in the Timor Sea which transnational pollution, because it involves three countries, namely Australia, Timor Leste, and Indonesia. Settlement efforts to revolve the impact caused by too have done well by the Australian Government nor by the Indonesian Government. Pollution of the marine environment also occurs in blasting offshore mining that pollute the Gulf of Mexico. As mentioned in the 1982 UNCLOS, Article 208 that one of …

The Abuse Of Guaranteed Pending Trial In The Chinese Criminal Process: A Violation Of International Human Rights Law, Li Enshen

Indonesian Journal of International Law

Guaranteed pending trial (Qubao Houshen) is one of the coercive measures used by the Chinese authorities to release suspects on bail in the criminal process. Unlike the western general practices, this instrument is not characterized as a legal right of suspects, but an effective means to circumvent the procedural requirements of investigation and prosecution in the laws. Further, the abuse of guaranteed pending trial is in fragrant violation of minimal international standards of human rights protection in the criminal justice system. The article first examines the procedural and practical deficiencies of this measure in the Chinese context. It then argues …