Theorizing about Trial Courts: Lawyers, Policymaking, and Tobacco Litigation

What role do litigation and trial court decisions play in shaping policy? This article explores that question by examining recent litigation against tobacco manufacturers filed by state attorneys general, plaintiff lawyers in class actions, lawyers for cities, unions, health plans, individual smokers, and others. I suggest how this litigation contributed to agenda setting, new ways of defining the problem, of tobacco and the policy alternatives, political mobilization, new legal norms, and new political and legal resources for opponents of tobacco. Addressing theoretical debates about the power of the courts to effect change, I distinguish between causal and constitutive arguments and suggest how both can be incorporated in social analysis.     

Law and Market Economy: The Triadic Linking of Law,Economics, and Semiotics

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique -     

Big Stick,Little Stick: Strategies for Controlling and Combating Environmental Crime

Environmental offences often have rather obscure victims. At the same time, we know that those crimes commonly regarded as the most serious have clearly visible victims. It is difficult for people to relate to environmental offences in the same way as many traditional crimes, and this makes it easier to commit breaches of the environmental regulations. One element in a control strategy ought therefore to be continuous attempts to discover really serious environmental crimes that are easily communicated to the public. Regulations are followed if we believe that others also do so. If we have a sense that cheating is widespread then group solidarity is weakened, and with it the inclination to abide by the rules. How then do individuals and businessmen develop the perception that control measures are working? This happens primarily by means of a perception that observance of the regulations is being monitored. Broadly based control measures and contacts are therefore of considerable importance. By means of risk assessment procedures, interventions can then be concentrated where they are judged to be most necessary. A broad arsenal of measures is needed to persuade companies to observe the regulations; an arsenal from big stick to little stick, from self-regulation and service to administrative sanction charges and criminal offences.     

Exemplary Damages in Equity: A Law and Economics Perspective

In Harris v Digital Pulse Pty Ltd (2003) 56 NSWLR 298, the NewSouth Wales Court of Appeal held that exemplary (or punitive)damages are not available for breach of fiduciary duty or otherequitable obligation. The decision runs counter to authoritiesin Canada, New Zealand and some U.S. states. Punitive (exemplary)damages is a hotly debated topic in the United States and ithas attracted considerable interest among law and economicsscholars, particularly in the tort litigation context. Thisarticle analyzes the Digital Pulse case from a law and economicsperspective. Polinsky and Shavell (among others) argue thatthe function of punitive damages is to achieve optimal deterrencein cases where the probability that the plaintiff will discoverand successfully litigate the defendant’s wrongdoing isless than 1. Given the high costs of monitoring fiduciary behaviour,it might be tempting to conclude that exemplary damages shouldbe routinely awarded for breach of fiduciary obligation. Thearticle explains why this view is wrong. On the other hand,given the availability of gains-based remedies (the accountof profits and the like) for breach of fiduciary obligation,it might be tempting to conclude that exemplary damages arenever justified in fiduciary cases. The article explains whythis view is wrong too. The main conclusions are that: (1) exemplarydamages should be available for breach of fiduciary duty andthe like, but not as a matter of course; and (2) exemplary damageswere probably not warranted in Digital Pulse itself.     

Regulatory Appraisal: A Neglected Opportunity for Law and Economics

Governments are increasingly using cost-benefit analysis to appraise regulatory proposals. In this paper, the author reviews recent practice in the USA and UK. Drawing particularly on examples of analysis undertaken by the British Health and Safety Executive, he argues that a technique originally adopted to assess the merits of public projects is, as yet, insufficiently sensitive to some of the problematic aspects of the interaction between legal instruments and human behaviour. These aspects are the focus of much law-and-economics analysis and the value of regulatory appraisal would be enhanced by an increased input of such analysis.     

Children's Rights and the Politics of Food: Big Food Versus Little People

This article traces the battle in the United States during the Obama administration, continuing into the Trump administration, to protect children's rights to food. It explores barriers to development of sound, science‐based food policies, including the refusal to recognize food as a human right, anti‐science denialism, hostility toward government regulation, and relative powerlessness of children. It points to the role of a “Big Food Pyramid” composed of powerful food industry and large scale distribution and marketing interests in blocking sound policies in prenatal and infant nutrition, school lunches, SNAP and WIC, the marketing to children of high fat and fructose‐laden products, and campaigns to increase youth fitness. While predicting a continuing assault at the federal level on children's rights to safe and healthy foods, the article highlights the positive role of consumer demand in shaping marketing, labeling and production of food and opportunities for leaders in the food industry and in government at local, municipal and state levels to continue the battle for sound food policies.     

我国担保法制度设计应当重视的几个基本问题——基于民法、经济法和法经济学的综合视角

担保制度是保障交易安全、促进经济发展的重要法律手段。科学、合理的担保制度,应当充分利用一切可以利用的担保资源,最大限度地控制担保制度对物的利用及社会生活其他方面产生的负面影响,并能有效地促进经济的发展。基于此,中国担保法律制度的安排应当认真处理好五个方面的基本问题。     

An Interpretation of Max Weber's Theory of Law: Metaphysics, Economics, and the Iron Cage of Constitutional Law

Among legal scholars, Anthony T. Kronman and David M. Trubek have provided the leading interpretations of Weber's theory of law. Kronman and Trubek agree on two important points: Weber's theory is fundamentally contradictory, and Weber's theory relates primarily to private law subjects such as contracts. This article contests both of these points. Building on a foundation of Weber's neo-Kantian metaphysics and his sociological categories of economic action, this article shows that Weber's theory of law is not fundamentally inconsistent; rather it explores the inconsistencies that are inherent within Western society itself, including its legal systems. Furthermore, Weber's insights can be applied to modern constitutional jurisprudence. Weberian theory reveals that modern constitutional law is riddled with irreconcilable tensions between process and substance—between formal and substantive rationality. In the context of racial discrimination cases involving equal protection and the Fifteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court's acceptance of John Hart Ely's theory of representation-reinforcement demonstrates the Court's resolute pursuit of formal rationality, which insures that the substantive values and needs of minorities will remain unsatisfied.     

Financial Compensation for Victims of Catastrophes: A Law and Economics Perspective

This article examines the various approaches legislators may use to compensate victims of catastrophes. Traditional law and economics of insurance literature, with respect to government relief and insurance solutions towards financial compensation, is used to analyze (highly diverging) approaches in Europe and the United States. First, the importance of liability (insurance) is discussed in cases where a liable injurer can be identified; second, the possibilities of first-party insurance are examined, whereby various regulatory solutions (particularly the French model of providing mandatory coverage for catastrophes) is critically discussed. The (first-party) insurance solution is compared with public intervention, and a distinction is made between ad hoc government relief on an ex-post basis and structural compensation funds. The solutions applied and discussed in many countries are critically analyzed for their ability to provide adequate compensation at low costs and their effects on incentives for prevention and for developing private (insurance) solutions.     

论医疗告知义务——以经济学和法学为视角

医疗告知是医疗单位在医疗过程中的一项法定义务,是以患者知情同意权为其理论基础,是判定医疗行为是否存在过失的一项重要标准。我国目前医疗实践中医疗纠纷频发的主要原因在于我国医疗告知义务立法不完善以及学界对医疗告知义务研究甚少。文章以经济学和法学为视角,从医疗告知义务之经济学基础、医疗告知义务之法学基础、医疗告知义务之履行及其评判标准等方面,结合我国立法现状,就医疗告知义务进行了深入研究,以期为我国医疗实践和司法实践提供理论根据。     

External Finance,Firm Growth and the Benefits of Information Disclosure: Evidence from Finland

In this paper we study the relation between firm-level disclosure quality and the availability of external finance to firms. Using data on Finnish firms that are mostly private and small, we first estimate excess growth made possible by external finance. We then show that the excess growth is associated with the quality of disclosure, and that at least a part of the association arises because firms with excess growth self-select. The association seems to be strongest for a priori financially constrained firms. Taken together, the results of our empirical analysis identify a specific mechanism through which firms in need for external finance voluntarily look for good disclosure quality. They look for it, because it reduces barriers to external finance. These empirical findings have implications for policy-makers who consider whether firms should be forced to talkJEL Classification: E50, G21, G24, G32     

法经济学视野中的行政法与民法的分界

对于不当行为,立法者是选择民法还是行政法进行控制,一般需要考量四个要素：当事人与行政主体掌握的行为风险信息方面的差异、加害人的赔偿能力、索赔威胁大小和行政成本。对于损害小、损害集中且发生率低的日常行为,应选择民法进行规制;对于发生率高、损害大、发现率低、损害分散的风险行为,行政法进行控制的社会效果更为明显。当同时选择两种控制机制时,遵守行政法规一般不构成加害人对抗受害人诉求的抗辩事由。     

Accountability and the Regulation of the Large Law Firm Lawyer

The regulation of solicitors in England and Wales has undergone great change in the wake of the Legal Services Act 2007. This article considers these regulatory developments through the lens of accountability, focussing on the regulation of transactional lawyers and the large commercial firms. It examines to what extent the Solicitors Regulation Authority's regulatory framework promotes accountability, examining entity regulation, outcomes‐focussed and principles‐based regulation, reporting and disclosure obligations, the Compliance Officer for Legal Practice and the sanctions system. It argues that although transactional lawyers cannot claim the benefit of the ethical principle of non‐accountability, as far as they and their firms are concerned, the regulatory framework is both unnecessary and insufficient. It duplicates the function of accountability to the client and fails to hold transactional lawyers to account for significant regulatory risks that they present, such as the practice of creative compliance.     

侵权法的经济学理论：一个思想史的札记

"法律与经济学"理论运动在40多年的时间里成为当今美国主流法学流派之一,这在法律思想史上实属罕见。法律与经济学对法学和法律的冲击是全方位的,通过以"思想史的角度"对法律与经济学之"侵权法理论"展开讨论,重点表现在科斯的成本理论、卡拉布雷西的规则理论和波斯纳的侵权法经济分析理论。     

Law and Economics in Common-Law, Civil-Law, and Developing Nations

Abstract. The law and economics movement is the principal interdisciplinary field of legal studies. This paper traces the history of the movement and explains its basic principles, contrasts the version of the movement that predominates in the United States with the version that prevails in Europe, noting the greater emphasis of the former on substantive doctrine and of the latter on rule of law considerations, and emphasizes the importance of the movement for legal and economic reform in developing nations.