ABSTRACT
An emerging body of scholarship is challenging the orthodoxy that the tax system rather than the legal system should be used to address inequality. This ‘New Law and Inequality Scholarship’ argues for using law to address inequality for both practical and theoretical reasons and, notably, is grounded in the same kind of rigorous and evidence-based analysis relied on by an earlier generation of law and economics scholars to argue against using legal rules to address inequality. Two of the most exciting thinkers in this new area of research are Ofer Eldar and Rory Van Loo. Their article, ‘Unequal Ownership’, identifies several ways in which making stock ownership more equitable can help to both address inequality and, surprisingly, improve economic efficiency. This Response outlines the contours of this ‘New Law and Inequality Scholarship’, highlights some of the key contributions made by Eldar and Van Loo in ‘Unequal Ownership’, and offers one friendly amendment. In future research, Eldar and Van Loo could show in more detail how preventing corporations from extracting surplus from consumers and workers also reduces wasteful competition.
Guttentag, Michael D, The New Law and Inequality Scholarship (June 21, 2025), Loyola Law School, Los Angeles Legal Studies Research Paper No 2025-18; 105 Boston University Law Review 897 (2025).
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