Two central puzzles about social norms are how they are enforced and how they are created or modified. The sanctions for violation of a norm can be categorized as automatic, guilt, shame, informational, bilateral- costly, and multilateral-costly. Problems in creating and enforcing norms are...

Larry Lessig flagellates himself about losing the Eldred case, which upheld the legality of copyright extensions. He shouldn't: Eldred was unwinnable. (The Court's 7-2 vote is one clue). Besides, the worst of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act's effects can still be made to disappear,...

The question is whether it is possible to have a congestion externality in intellectual property, such as the Mickey Mouse character. Literally, the answer is no. Figuratively, it is yes.

This Article attempts to explain the views about business of Brandeis and Holmes. The Article analyses why their economic thinking differed as it did; to what extent it comports with a modern understanding of economics; and how Holmes and Brandeis could have been such close allies when their...