Category Archives: Law and Economics
Dharmapala and Garoupa, ‘The Law of Restitution for Void Contracts: An Economic Analysis’
ABSTRACT This paper develops an economic analysis of the application of the law of restitution to the case of void contracts, when agreements may be unenforceable due to legal invalidity. It develops a simple model in which contracting parties’ agreements potentially impose external harms. The analysis focuses on how alternative restitution regimes affect contracting incentives […]
Abraham and Baker, ‘Five Sober Prescriptions for Homeowners Insurance’
ABSTRACT In this Article, we offer five sober prescriptions for homeowners insurance. The prescriptions have the virtue of being capable of implementation, having the potential to mitigate the homeowners insurance crisis, and not depending on unrealistic assumptions about policyholders, regulators, or markets. We are not suggesting that merely by snapping one’s fingers, these prescriptions can […]
Kiran Chawla, ‘Who Pays for Wildfires?’
ABSTRACT Sparks from private utility infrastructure have ignited some of the deadliest wildfires of the last decade. Climate change and a pattern of building in harm’s way have made the resulting harms catastrophic. Who should pay? This Article evaluates the liability and regulatory rules that answer that question, analyzing two categories of costs and their […]
Givati and Rigbi, ‘The Economic Consequences of Insecure Property Rights’
ABSTRACT Secure property rights support efficient allocation and investment, yet their effects in affluent urban markets remain understudied. We examine Jerusalem properties built on church-owned land under 99-year leases approaching expiration, creating substantial legal and political uncertainty. Using all residential transactions from 2004-2024, we compare nearby properties with secure and insecure rights within the same […]
Luppi and Parisi, ‘Third-Party Residual Liability’
ABSTRACT This paper develops a three-party accident model in which accident risk is jointly affected by the care and activity levels of injurers and victims, as well as by safety investments made by a third party controlling the external risk environment. We consider a third party residual liability (TPRL) rule under which injurers and victims […]
Antonio Yang, ‘Time Commodification: How Capitalism Justifies Enslavement and Organ Harvesting’
ABSTRACT This paper presents a reductio ad absurdum of an imagined complete capitalist market where morals and ethics are disregarded. It begins with two premises: (i) everything is allowed to be transacted under a complete capitalist market, including the claim of one’s time, and (ii) every human being is subject to their own time because […]
Jose Gonzalez, ‘Moving Targets: Promissory Instability in the Pricing and Access Terms of Generative AI Subscription Services (2024-2026)’
ABSTRACT Between October 2024 and July 2026, the leading commercial providers of generative artificial intelligence repeatedly modified the pricing, usage limits, and access terms of subscription services after consumers had already paid for them. This paper documents that pattern through a rapid multiple-case documentary analysis of four providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Moonshot AI), drawing […]
Nicolas Gonzalez, ‘Maximizing De Minimis’
ABSTRACT The circuit split on the applicability of de minimis exceptions to digital sampling has stirred controversy for the last decade. An adequate resolution to this split ought to treat copyright interpretation as an institutional choice, incorporating economic concerns into statutory construction. This Comment analyzes the copyright system as an institutional allocation of rights under […]
Enrico Baffi, ‘Voluntary but Voidable? Consent, Coercion, and the Limits of Contractual Freedom’
ABSTRACT This Article examines the treatment, across several legal systems, of promises obtained through pressure – in cases of duress and of the exploitation of a state of necessity – and asks to what extent that treatment can be understood as designed to promote economic efficiency. As an operational tool, it proposes the criterion of […]
Ryan Hanley, ‘Human Flourishing and the Wealth of Nations: Adam Smith on Character Development and Institutional Design’
ABSTRACT Students of Adam Smith’s views on virtue typically look to The Theory of Moral Sentiments. But in fact, the Wealth of Nations contains a strikingly robust theory of the relationship between virtues and institutions, one centered on the question of how the incentive systems created by various institutional structures encourage or impede the moral […]