The Coase Theorem predicts that, if there are no transaction costs, parties will always contract their way to an efficient outcome. Thus, no matter which legal rules society chooses, "Coasean bargains" will lead to efficient results. There are always some transaction costs. However, transaction...

Recent years have seen an explosion of scholarship on “personalized law.” Commentators foresee a world in which regulators armed with big data and machine learning techniques determine the optimal legal rule for every regulated party, then instantaneously disseminate their decisions via...

There are two basic reasons why a citizen may choose to engage in political activity: She may wish to achieve particular results (“extrinsic motivations”) or she may simply enjoy engaging in the political activity itself (“intrinsic motivations”). However, most citizens’ ability to...

In this short paper, I shall answer the title's question first in the context of criminal law and then in the context of tort law. In that latter section I shall also mention in passing contractual and other forms of civil liability that are strict, although they will not be my principal focus....

We examine two distinct forms of information bundling that can occur when a firm releases a restatement: “positive bundling,” the release of good news with the restatement, and “negative bundling,” the release of additional bad news. We use a triple differences testing approach to...

Using a large set of restatement announcements and regulatory filings by U.S.-listed firms between 2003 and 2009, we find evidence that managers aim to reduce litigation risk by (1) bundling negative information, such as earnings restatements, with other public announcements, and (2) leaking...

The text of the Constitution nowhere mentions God; the document is, as some scholars put it, quot;godless.quot; What is the significance of that silence? This brief essay, written for a discussion conference on religion, multiculturalism, and citizenship, considers and criticizes two possible...

The presence of Mexican law - as the applicable foreign law - continues to grow considerably in American courts. This phenomenon is significant in California and the southwestern states, as well as in Illinois, New York and Washington, D.C. It is unquestionable that deciding cases based on...

For purposes of acquisition of real estate by foreigners and foreign legal entities, the Republic of Mexico is divided into two large areas: a) the Restricted Zone; and, b) the Permitted Zone. The Restricted Zone is the real estate located in a strip of 64 miles along Mexico's border with the...

This working paper considers the effects of two California bills related to greenhouse gas (GHG) regulation – SB 375 (land use and transportation) and SB 97 (new CEQA Guidelines for GHG planning) – on local land use and regional transportation planning – in particular to contribute to...