"Stuff Happens": Donald Rumsfeld and the Iraq War

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld exercised great influence over U.S. policies in the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. The Secretary's leadership presents a puzzle—accounts agree that Rumsfeld was a masterful bureaucratic infighter who ruthlessly gained control over the major decisions and marginalized colleagues, yet, having secured that control, was remarkably blasé about events on the ground in Iraq. I argue that Rumsfeld's paradoxical performance was rooted in key aspects of his worldview—measured through systematic content analysis of his verbal output on the principle that the words individuals say are related to the way they see the world—and his bureaucratic style, identified through interviews with Bush administration insiders. Rumsfeld's worldview centers on a low perception of the control of self in relation to macro-political events, and a very high conceptual complexity, indicating a nuanced view of issues. This low perception of control and heavily contingent worldview is the discursive, "stuff happens" side of Rumsfeld which so frustrated critics of the U.S. occupation. His bureaucratic style, however, was controlling, suspicious, and overbearing. I suggest that this approach offers a more complete explanation of Rumsfeld's actions, and so contributes to understanding of the Iraq story, as it is rooted in consideration of the basic dispositions that condition how individuals approach their roles.     

The regular article tracking developments at the national level in key European countries in the area of IT and communications – Co-ordinated by Herbert Smith LLP and contributed to by firms across Europe

This column provides a concise alerting service of important national developments in key European countries. Part of its purpose is to complement the Journal's feature articles and Briefing Notes by keeping readers abreast of what is currently happening “on the ground” at a national level in implementing EU level legislation and international conventions and treaties. Where an item of European National News is of particular significance, CLSR may also cover it in more detail in the current or a subsequent edition.     

On being asset-constrained in litigation contests

This paper establishes that being asset-constrained may be advantageous for defendants in litigation contests. An active asset constraint of defendants (i) may increase (decrease) defendant (plaintiff) contest effort, (ii) may lower the sum of plaintiff and defendant contest effort, (iii) lowers expected defendant payment, and (iv) makes a symmetric contest asymmetric.     

Sequencing of remedies in sales law

This paper analyzes the effects of different sequences of remedies on the incentives of sellers to invest in product quality and on the probability of contract termination. For most European jurisdictions, Directive 1999/44/EC on the sale of consumer goods and its subsequent implementation into national law resulted in a substantial change in the remedies available to the consumer if a product proves deficient. Despite the purpose of the directive to harmonize national legislation, sales laws still differ significantly among member states. The analysis uses a stylized model to compare the pertinent features of two prototypical legal regimes that can be found after the directive’s implementation. The pivotal difference between the respective regimes lies in the sequence of remedies. We show that it is possible that investment incentives and the probability that contractual relationships initiated will be completed may be larger under either legal regime. Despite the general case’s ambiguity, we establish that the cancelation probability is typically lower if sales law limits buyers initial choice of remedies to subsequent performance. Our analysis indicates that the EC’s harmonization target has been missed. With regard to social optimality, we detail under which conditions it is desirable to provide an institutional framework that allows total seller investment to be split between an initial and an incremental input.     

Race and the Construction of Evidence in Homicide Cases

Research that attempts to document racial or gender disparities in the criminal justice system inevitably paints a distorted picture if only one point in the criminal justice process is examined. For example, studies that look at who is sentenced to death among a group convicted of first-degree murder will miss exposure of biases that occur at earlier stages of the criminal justice process. In this paper, we looked at prosecutorial files on over 400 homicide cases from Caddo Parish, Louisiana (the Shreveport area). Results indicate that even after controlling for aggravating factors, cases with White female victims result in thicker files than other homicides, indicating more prosecutorial effort in attempting to secure convictions in such cases. This, in turn, was related to more severe sentencing of offenders convicted of killing whites and women. On the other hand, cases with black victims resulted in the thinnest case files and the least severe sentences.