Law and Economics
Note
Labor’s Antitrust Problem: A Case for Worker Welfare
Labor and antitrust have historically been at odds: workers have faced antitrust liability for organizing, as the market power of employers has grown. Motivated by recent developments in the gig economy, this Note argues that antitrust law must preserve the welfare of workers, and proposes reforms t…
Feature
Building a Law-and-Political-Economy Framework: Beyond the Twentieth-Century Synthesis
Current crises of economic inequality and eroding democracy require us to move beyond legal orientations that prioritize efficiency, neutrality, and apolitical governance. This Feature suggests new orientations and questions for scholarship on “law and political economy” that instead foreground real…
Note
Beyond Nudging: Debiasing Consumers Through Mixed Framing
Mixed framing juxtaposes the positive and negative attributes of a product. For example, a label using mixed framing might characterize food as “90% fat-free / 10% fat.” This Note advocates that regulators embrace mixed framing as a middle ground in the battle between paternalistic and libertarian a…
Forum
Pregnancy and Living Wills: A Behavioral Economic Analysis
In most states, women are not permitted to have binding living wills during parts of their pregnancies. This Essay argues that the laws imposing these restrictions are ill-conceived and likely unconstitutional and, using behavioral economics, suggests a better alternative that respects women’s prefe…
Article
The Forgotten History of Metes and Bounds
Property scholarship has long derided metes and bounds systems of land demarcation, largely accepting that standardized boundaries best facilitate economic growth. Through a case study of colonial New Haven, Connecticut, this Article suggests that metes and bounds descriptions actually provided earl…
Review
The Law and Economics of Critical Race Theory
112 Yale L.J. 1757 (2003)
Our story is about the production and consumption of racial prototypes. The regulatory thrust of homogeneity creates both a demand for, and a supply of, specific racial prototypes--outsiders who can fit within predominantly white workplace cultures without "disturb[ing] the …
Note
Unions and the Duty of Good Faith in Employment Contracts
112 Yale L.J. 1881 (2003)
Some American scholars of law and economics have expressed dismay at the anticompetitive and illiberal body of legal doctrine that is labor law. Their respondents, often in other fields if not other countries, have defended unions and the laws that support them on both econ…
Review
The Grounds of Welfare
112 Yale L.J. 1511 (2003)
Louis Kaplow and Steven Shavell are talented and distinguished legal academics who for the past several years have been working jointly on a massive project in normative law and economics. The project's goal is to answer the question: What are the criteria by which legal pol…
Essay
Economic Analysis of Contract Law After Three Decades: Success or Failure?
112 Yale L.J. 829 (2003)
Modern economic analysis of contract law began about thirty years ago and, many scholars would agree, has become the dominant academic style of contract theory. Traditional doctrinal analysis exerts less influence than it did prior to 1970 and enjoys little prestige. Philosop…
Response
Valuing Modern Contract Scholarship
112 Yale L.J. 881 (2003)
In sum, Posner has leveled three different criticisms at the modern economic analysis of contracts: a descriptive critique that the scholarship fails to describe or predict the content of current law, a normative critique that the scholarship fails to "provide a solid basis f…
Response
In That Case, What Is the Question? Economics and the Demands of Contract Theory
112 Yale L.J. 903 (2003)
In his thoughtful essay, Eric Posner asks whether economic analysis has failed contract law and suggests that it has. Not surprisingly, I hold a different opinion. That is, while I agree with much of what Posner says about particular economic findings, I disagree about what …