Articles
Catastrophic Oil Spills and the Problem of Insurance
Nov. 29, 2011—The BP oil spill of 2010 focused considerable attention on the operating conduct of BP, on the potential liability of BP and other entities associated with the spill, and on the fund that BP established to provide compensation to victims of the spill. Much less attention has been paid, however, to the nature and scope...
Real-Time Economic Analysis and Policy Development During the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Nov. 29, 2011—The 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill posed near-term economic risks to the Gulf of Mexico region and raised questions about appropriate policies to mitigate catastrophic oil-spill risks. This Essay reviews the Obama Administration’s assessment of the economic vulnerabilities to the spill, the Administration’s May 12, 2010, legislative proposal focused on minimizing the adverse economic...
Coastal Wetland Restoration and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Nov. 29, 2011—Both the 2005 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the 2010 BP oil spill have focused attention on the need to restore coastal wetland habitats along the Gulf of Mexico of the United States. As restoration is required by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, restoring coastal wetlands will be required as part of BP’s legal...
Deepwater Drilling: Law, Policy, and Economics of Firm Organization and Safety
Nov. 29, 2011—Although the causes of the Deepwater Horizon spill are not yet conclusively identified, significant attention has focused on the safety-related policies and practices—often referred to as the safety culture—of BP and other firms involved in drilling the well. This Article defines and characterizes the economic and policy forces that affect safety culture and identifies reasons...
Litigating BP’s Contribution Claims in Publicly Subsidized Courts: Should Contracting Parties Pay Their Own Way?
Nov. 29, 2011—In this Article, we focus on an important problem involving mass-accident cases that was highlighted by the Deepwater Horizon litigation: overuse of courts to enforce contribution claims. These claims seek to shift incurred or expected liability and damages between the business and governmental entities that participated in the activity that gave rise to the mass-accident...
Organizational Apologies: BP as a Case Study
Nov. 29, 2011—This Article examines the conduct of BP executives in the weeks following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to illuminate the use of apology by organizations. After briefly describing the value of apology and its nuances from an evolutionary perspective, the Article describes how apology and other responsibility-accepting behaviors can be mobilized by organizations to avoid...
Should BP Be Liable for Economic Losses Due to the Moratorium on Oil Drilling Imposed After the Deepwater Horizon Accident?
Nov. 29, 2011—In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon accident and the BP oil spill, the government imposed a moratorium on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The issue addressed here is whether, on grounds of policy, BP should be held responsible for moratorium-related economic losses. The answer that is developed is no. The reason,...
Plea Bargaining, Discovery, and the Intractable Problem of Impeachment Disclosures
Oct. 26, 2011—In a criminal justice system where guilty pleas are the norm and trials the rare exception, the issue of how much discovery a defendant is entitled to before allocution has immense significance. This Article examines the scope of a prosecutor’s obligation to disclose impeachment information before a guilty plea. This question has polarized the criminal...
Patently Impossible
Oct. 26, 2011—The quest to achieve the impossible fuels creativity, spawns new fields of inquiry, illuminates old ones, and extends the frontiers of knowledge. It is difficult, however, to obtain a patent for an invention which seems impossible, incredible, or conflicts with well-established scientific principles. The principal patentability hurdle is operability, which an inventor cannot overcome if...
Breaching the Mortgage Contract: The Behavioral Economics of Strategic Default
Oct. 26, 2011—Underwater homeowners face a quandary: Should they make their monthly payments as promised or walk away and save money? Traditional economic analysis predicts that homeowners will strategically default (voluntarily enter foreclosure) when it is cheaper to do so than to keep paying down the mortgage debt. But this prediction ignores the moral calculus of default,...
Golan v. Holder (2011)
Sep. 16, 2011—The October, 2011 Roundtable was on Golan v. Holder, which was argued at the Supreme Court on October 5, 2011. In Golan, the Court considered whether Congress may constitutionally confer copyright on works that have fallen into the public domain. Congress created a new class of “restored” works in 1996 in order to fulfill its obligations under...
Visa as Property, Visa as Collateral
May. 30, 2011—Although the “tragic choice” framework has not been applied in the context of U.S. immigration law, current immigration policy is rife with tragic choices, defined as a commitment by policy elites to maintaining certain illusions which shield from public view tough policy choices that offend deeply-held values. Take, for example, the issue of commodification of...
Optimal Lead Plaintiffs
May. 30, 2011—Adequate representation in securities class actions is, at best, an afterthought and, at worst, usurped and subsumed by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act’s lead-plaintiff appointment process. Once appointed, the lead plaintiff bears a crushing burden: Congress expects her to monitor the attorney, thwart strike suits, and deter fraud, while judges expect her appointment as...
Memory and Punishment
May. 30, 2011—This Article is the first in-depth scholarly exploration of the implications of neurobiological memory modification for criminal law. Its point of entry is the fertile context of criminal punishment, in which memory plays a crucial role. Specifically, this Article will argue that there is a deep relationship between memory and the foundational principles justifying how...
Causing Infringement
Apr. 27, 2011—Recent appellate decisions reveal a chaotic contributory infringement doctrine that offers little direction to entrepreneurs trying to balance digital innovation with legal strictures. Aware of the problem, both the Supreme Court and legal scholars urge a modeling of contributory infringement based on common law tort rules. But common law tort is an enormous subject. Without...
Committee Capture? An Empirical Analysis of the Role of Creditors’ Committees in Business Reorganizations
Apr. 27, 2011—The number of businesses experiencing financial distress increased significantly during the past several years. The number of Chapter 11 reorganization cases likewise rose. And many of these business failures were spectacular, leaving little value for creditors and even less for shareholders. Consequently, how the business debtor’s limited asset pie is divided and who gets to...