This article, written for the Eighth Annual Legal Scholarship Symposium celebrating the work of Richard A. Epstein, assesses Epstein’s advocacy of a default rule for patent conveyances. The article first explains how nineteenth-century patent doctrine supports Epstein’s argument for a...

This paper analyzes trade deficits from both an accounting and philosophical perspective. The author concludes that trade deficits are considered to be undesirable because of faulty accounting and philosophical analysis and that global economic progress will continue if free trade expands...

While patent filings in China have been exploding in recent years, analysis based on a variety of metrics shows that this increase has not necessarily translated into a ‘proportionate’ rise in patent quality. Further, based on projections quantifying “highest quality” patents in China,...

Aid for Trade (AfT) came to prominence just over a decade ago at the launch of the World Trade Organization's Doha Round. With its focus on helping least developed countries and economies escape the poverty trap, it aims to strengthen their capabilities to meet market demand and to reduce...

Many have increasingly questioned if and how Chinese policy has evolved or will evolve to ensure that the country’s development is not only focused on immediate economic growth, but also economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. This paper addresses this question by tracing key...

During Britain's industrialization, Parliament operated a forum where rights to land and resources could be reorganized. This venue enabled landholders and communities to exploit economic opportunities that could not be accommodated by the inflexible rights regime inherited from the past. In...

This paper traces the development of the liberalisation process in Indonesia and its contribution to improving the competitiveness of Indonesia's industry. Indonesia has been actively liberalising its trade unilaterally, multilaterally under the WTO, and regionally with APEC and AFTA. The crisis...

Regulatory reform efforts in a broad range of industries have resulted in increased importance of competitive forces as a means to allocate resources and improve economic efficiency. A number of indicators suggest that such forces have been stronger in the United States than in most other OECD...

Currently, there are no adequate mechanisms under international law to balance the competing tensions climate change presents to state sovereignty. On one hand, climate change threatens state sovereignty because the catastrophic loss of life and property of millions of people would deprive...

This chapter reviews the theory of the voluntary public and private redistribution of wealth elaborated by economic analysis in the last forty years or so. The central object of the theory is altruistic gift-giving, construed as benevolent voluntary redistribution of income or wealth. The theory...