Gridlock Economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, And Costs Lives (Introduction),
2010
Columbia Law School
Gridlock Economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, And Costs Lives (Introduction), Michael A. Heller
Faculty Scholarship
Twenty-five new runways would eliminate most air travel delays in America; fifty patent owners are blocking a major drug company from creating a cancer cure; 90 percent of our broadcast spectrum sits idle while American cell phone service suffers. These problems have solutions that can jump-start innovation and help save our troubled economy. So, what's holding us back?
Abuse Of Rights: The Continental Drug And The Common Law,
2010
Boston University School of Law
Abuse Of Rights: The Continental Drug And The Common Law, Anna Di Robilant
Faculty Scholarship
This Article deploys a comparative approach to question a widely shared understanding of the impact and significance of abuse of rights. First, it challenges the idea that abuse of rights is a peculiarly civilian "invention," absent in the common law. Drawing on an influential strand of functionalist comparative law, the Article identifies the "functional equivalents of the doctrine in the variety of malice rules and reasonableness tests deployed by American courts in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century in fields as diverse as water law, nuisance, tortious interference with contractual relations, and labor law. The Article investigates the reasons why in …
Forced Sale Risk: Class, Race, And The "Double Discount",
2010
Texas A&M University School of Law
Forced Sale Risk: Class, Race, And The "Double Discount", Thomas W. Mitchell, Stephen Malpezzi, Richard K. Green
Faculty Scholarship
What impact does a forced sale have upon a property owner's wealth? And do certain characteristics of a property owner such as whether they are rich or poor or whether they are black or white, tend to affect the price yielded at a forced sale? This Article addresses arguments made by some courts and legal scholars who have claimed that certain types of forced sales result in wealth maximizing, economic efficiencies. The Article addresses such economic arguments by returning to first principles and reviewing the distinction between sales conducted under fair market value conditions and sales conducted under forced sale …
Direct Voting By Property Owners,
2010
Columbia Law School
Direct Voting By Property Owners, Thomas W. Merrill
Faculty Scholarship
Direct voting by property owners is a widespread but controversial tool for resolving disputes over local collective goods. Direct voting has powerful advantages, in that it can harness the superior knowledge of many local minds, resolve controversies in a way that is perceived to be legitimate, and eliminate corrupt dealmaking. But it also has serious pitfalls, if local voters are poorly informed, or if they ignore external effects on other communities, or if the process is distorted by majoritarian or minoritarian bias. To capitalize on the advantages of local voting, and minimize the risks, this Article proposes that direct voting …
