This note reexamines the theory of optimal public enforcement when litigation costs are incurred if the defendant is prosecuted at trial, and when an out-of-court settlement is possible. Using a numerical example, it is shown that settlements and litigation costs can substantially alter the...

China's ever-expanding commercial influence has attracted global attention on how its civil and commercial disputes are resolved and how the changing landscape has developed.This compelling new book, Dispute Resolution in China, offers a detailed examination of the elements in the Chinese legal...

Strategic litigation describes the phenomenon of lawsuits brought by civil society actors (activists and NGOs) in order to promote legal, political or social change. Prominent examples are business human rights and climate change litigation, where parallel lawsuits are filed in different fora at...

This paper examines the role of experts from both a United Kingdom and North America perspective. The paper starts by pointing out the important role of expert evidence in assisting the tier of fact. The distinction between accountants as fact witnesses and as expert witnesses is identified. The...

This paper looks at the decision to settle patent litigation in Germany from a new angle by focusing on detailed data on within-trial actions and motivations by plaintiff, defendant and the courts. Using a new dataset covering about 80% of all patent litigation cases in Germany between 2000 and...

This paper analyzes deterrence, settlement, and litigation spending under two alternative procedural regimes, i.e., the adversarial versus inquisitorial systems. We present a general litigation model with three sequential stages---care, settlement, and litigation stages---and we test the...

In this contribution to the Symposium honoring Stephen Yeazell, the author explores the interaction between group litigation and social context in the contemporary setting. She traces recent developments in the law of class action waivers coupled with mandatory individual arbitration clauses in...