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.     

Food Brexit and Chlorinated Chicken: A Microcosm of Wider Food Problems

This paper situates food safety concerns raised in the Brexit debate since the referendum and suggests that, although the issue of chlorinated chicken entered public discourse, it represents wider concerns about food safety standards. Food safety has had high resonance in the UK since the 1980s, but Brexit shows how it connects to wider concerns also raised about Brexit, such as impacts on healthcare, the effects of austerity on food poverty, the limitations of low waged employment, concerns about migration and labour markets, and regional economic disparities. Brexit’s impact on the UK food system is immense because food has been highly integrated into EU governance. While food standards can be portrayed as a single narrow issue, the paper suggests it provides a useful lens with which to examine, interrogate and comprehend these wider Brexit politics. The complex realities of food politics and wider food system dynamics undermine any simplistic political narrative of ‘taking back control’.     

Contingent fees meet the British rule: an exploratory study

Compensation schemes in which lawyer’s fees are contingent on winning the suit are becoming increasingly popular throughout Europe. At the same time, the British rule of legal cost allocation is applicable in many European countries. As a result, it is of policy relevance how their coexistence may be harmonized. This paper uses the litigation-contest framework to analyze the consequences of three different cost-allocation regimes if a plaintiff’s attorney is compensated on a contingent fee basis. We compare the equilibrium contest effort, justice, and payoffs for affected parties in the different regimes and find arguments in favor of not reimbursing contingent fees.     

An International Environmental Regime for Population?: from Bucharest to Cairo

The problem of over population has been the subject of much debate since Malthus's 'Essay on the Principle of Population' in 1798. This debate has taken on a new sense of urgency, however, during the last 25 years, as the global implications of rapid population growth have became apparent. Attempts by the international community to establish a regime to deal with the problem have led to the convening of three conferences, Bucharest (1974), Mexico City (1984) and Cairo (1994) But despite propitious signs of consensus during the run up periods to each of these conferences, no international regime has been created This article examines the reasons for both the initial consensus and the eventual dissensus in each case, and concludes that several pre-conditions must be met if a regime is to be established in the future.