The Consequences of Culture: Legal History,Labor Law,and the Contributions of Christopher Tomlins

This article reviews three books on labor law written by Christopher Tomlins. They are, in order of publication, The State and the Unions: Labor Relations, Law, and the Organized Labor Movement in America, 1880–1960 (1985); Law, Labor, and Ideology in the Early American Republic (1993); and Freedom Bound: Law, Labor, and Civic Identity in Colonizing English America, 1580–1865 (2010). Tomlins has been an influential figure in the movement known as “critical legal studies” and has helped shape a new approach to the field of labor history, labor law, and the study of US workers. Over the span of twenty‐five years, Tomlins's research has been central to evolving theories of law and social interaction and has continuing relevance to more recent scholarly developments such as the field of “cultural cognition” studies.     

Responsibility Attribution for Collective Decision Makers

We argue that individuals use responsibility attribution heuristics that apply to collective decisions made, for example, by families, teams within firms, boards in international organizations, or coalition governments. We conduct laboratory and online experiments to tease out the heuristics subjects use in their responsibility attribution for collective decision makers. The lab experiments comprise a collective dictator game in which decision makers have weighted votes and recipients can punish individual decision makers. Our results show that recipients punish unfair allocations and mainly target the decision maker with proposal power and with the largest vote share. We find weak evidence that decision makers with veto power are targeted or that recipients punish proportional to vote share. The online experiment demonstrates that subjects indeed believe that the decision maker with proposal power has the most influence on the collective decision outcome. We discuss the implications of our findings for theories of vote choice.     

Applying Insights from Transaction Cost Economics to Improve Cost Estimates for Public Sector Purchases: The Case of U.S. Military Acquisition

ABSTRACT

This article uses Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) to help characterize, explain, and ultimately reduce the cost growth that plagues many of today's major investments in military capabilities. There is mounting evidence of a systematic bias in initial cost estimates of new weapon systems purchased by the U.S. military. Unrealistically low cost estimates result in cost overruns. Fixing cost overruns can substantially impact public budgets and military readiness. Cost estimates serve a dual function: first, as an integral part of the decision-making process to evaluate military purchases/investments, and second, as a baseline for future defense budgets. In the first case, underestimating costs can result in too many new weapon program starts and excessive investments in those systems. In the second case, unrealistically low cost estimates result in overly optimistic budgets. Budgets planned on the basis of optimistic cost estimates create the illusion of more resources available than actually exist. Two factors are often blamed for unrealistically low cost estimates: bad incentives (psychological and political-economic explanations), and bad forecasts (methodological explanations). While briefly exploring the former, the focus of this study is on cost estimating methodology. Conventional public cost estimating techniques focus on the production costs of public purchases (input costs, learning curves, economies of scale and scope, etc.). The goal of this article is to improve cost estimates by expanding conventional cost estimating methodology to include TCE considerations. The primary insight of TCE is that correctly forecasting economic production costs of government purchases or acquisitions is necessary, but not sufficient. TCE emphasizes another set of costs—coordination and motivation costs (search and information costs; decision, contracting, and incentive costs; measurement, monitoring, and enforcement costs, etc.). This study encourages public officials and cost analysts to capture these costs and to understand key characteristics of public-private transactions (uncertainty, complexity, frequency, asset specificity, and market contestability) to generate more complete and reliable cost estimates and improve public sector purchases.     

Coal Ash Disposal in North Carolina: The Road after Eden

Coal ash legislation came to North Carolina in the wake of two significant spills, one at the nearby Tennessee Valley Authority coal power plant in Kingston, Tennessee, and another at the Dan River Steam Station along the Dan River in the town of Eden, North Carolina. These two events, combined with an impending study by the USEPA, would galvanize the North Carolina General Assembly to pass Senate Bill 729 (the Coal Ash Management Act). This bill mirrors the federal system of prioritizing the different energy utilities based on their hazard potential and eventually terminating their use as power production and coal ash storage facilities. Additionally, the act created a coal ash management commission and the process for confirming members. In summation, this legislative step shows the North Carolina General Assembly taking concrete steps to address a problem in the handling of coal combustion residuals. In North Carolina, however, only time will tell if these measures are substantial enough to ward off another Eden.     

‘That Exalted and Noble Science of Jurisprudence’: The Recruitment of Jurists with ‘Superior Qualifications’ by the Middle Temple in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

By looking at the references of those who applied for the Middle Temple Readership in Civil Law and Jurisprudence in the middle of the nineteenth century this article reveals the seriousness with which ‘a great experiment’ was undertaken in the years between 1846 and 1862. New courses were established for would-be barristers. Reformers at the Inns believed that lecturers should be chosen on merit, and the use of references in this context raised novel issues. More generally, the reformers believed barristers should know about English jurisprudence and continental traditions of legal thought. It was a lively episode in which common lawyers showed interest in the ideas of English jurists and, at the same time, looked for inspiration far beyond the shores of England. In the early years at least, it was a time of hope in legal education.     

Youth probation officers' interpretation and implementation of the Youth Criminal Justice Act: A case study of youth justice in Canada

Many juvenile justice systems are characterized by an amalgam of different principles and ideologies, which have been incorporated into laws and policies regarding youth crime. This study examines the perceptions of youth probation officers (YPOs) concerning the 2003 Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) in Canada, which is one recent case example of a mixed model of juvenile justice. For instance, although the Act emphasizes diversion and community-based sanctions for first time and minor offenders, it also allows for adult-length custody sentences for the most serious and violent youth. This study asked YPOs about their understanding of the YCJA and their ability to apply the Act in their daily work as well as their access to community programs in 2004 and 2007. The results as well as previous research on the YCJA and policy implications are discussed.