Articles
The Regulatory Contract in the Marketplace
Jan. 15, 2016—The Regulatory Contract in the Marketplace ABSTRACT For decades, energy policy has struggled to reconcile two distinct visions for the future: the first seeks ever-more-competitive, efficient, and dynamic electricity markets, while the second seeks an ever-greener mix of electricity generation sources. Caught within this push-and-pull dynamic is the regulatory contract—a nineteenth-century concept that stands more...
High Value Lies, Ugly Truths, and the First Amendment
Nov. 23, 2015—High Value Lies, Ugly Truths, and the First Amendment AUTHORS Alan K. Chen William M. Beaney Memorial Research Chair and Professor of Law, University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Justin Marceau Animal Legal Defense Fund Professor of Law, University of Denver Sturm College of Law. The authors would like to thank Ashutosh Bhagwat, Richard...
An Executive-Power Non-Delegation Doctrine for the Private Administration of Federal Law
Nov. 23, 2015—An Executive-Power Non-Delegation Doctrine for the Private Administration of Federal Law ABSTRACT Private entities often administer federal law. The early-twentieth-century Supreme Court derived constitutional limits to delegations of administrative power to private entities, grounding them in Article I of the Constitution where legislative power is delegated and in the Due Process Clause where the delegee’s...
How Algorithmic Trading Undermines Efficiency in Capital Markets
Nov. 23, 2015—How Algorithmic Trading Undermines Efficiency in Capital Markets ABSTRACT This Article argues that the rise of algorithmic trading undermines efficient capital allocation in securities markets. It is a bedrock assumption in theory that securities prices reveal how effectively public companies utilize capital. This conventional wisdom rests on the straightforward premise that prices reflect available information...
Curb Your Enthusiasm for Pigovian Taxes
Nov. 23, 2015—Curb Your Enthusiasm for Pigovian Taxes ABSTRACT Pigovian (or “corrective”) taxes have been proposed or enacted on dozens of harmful products and activities: carbon, gasoline, fat, sugar, guns, cigarettes, alcohol, traffic, zoning, executive pay, and financial transactions, among others. Academics of all political stripes are mystified by the public’s inability to see the merits of...
In Praise of Ex Ante Regulation
Nov. 23, 2015—In Praise of Ex Ante Regulation ABSTRACT Timing is an important consideration in regulatory design. Corrective taxes are usually imposed before or contemporaneously with the harmful activity they are aimed at preventing, while tort awards are assessed ex post, in its aftermath. Patents and research grants both can encourage innovation, but patents pay off only...
Overcriminalization’s New Harm Paradigm
Oct. 14, 2015—Overcriminalization’s New Harm Paradigm ABSTRACT The harms of overcriminalization are usually thought of in a particular way—that the proliferation of criminal laws leads to increasing and inconsistent criminal enforcement and adjudication. For example, an offender commits an unethical or illegal act and, because of the overwhelming depth and breadth of the criminal law, becomes subject...
Second Liens and the Leverage Option
Oct. 14, 2015—Second Liens and the Leverage Option ABSTRACT This Article demonstrates that the housing bubble was driven by second mortgages to a much greater extent than previously appreciated. A unique feature of American law allows homeowners to take out second mortgages, without the consent or even knowledge of the first mortgage lender. The result is an...
Regulatory Exit
Oct. 14, 2015—Regulatory Exit ABSTRACT Exit is a ubiquitous feature of life, whether breaking up in a marriage, dropping a college course, or pulling out of a venture capital investment. In fact, our exit options often determine whether and how we enter in the first place. While legal scholarship is replete with studies of exit strategies for...
The Supreme Court and the New Equity
May. 15, 2015—The Supreme Court and the New Equity ABSTRACT The line between law and equity has largely faded away. Even in remedies, where the line persists, the conventional scholarly wisdom favors erasing it. Yet something surprising has happened. In a series of cases over the last decade and a half, the U.S. Supreme Court has acted...
Misdemeanor Decriminalization
May. 15, 2015—Misdemeanor Decriminalization ABSTRACT As the United States reconsiders its stance on mass incarceration, misdemeanor decriminalization has emerged as an increasingly popular reform. Seen as a potential cure for crowded jails and an overburdened defense bar, many states are eliminating jailtime for minor offenses such as marijuana possession and driving violations, replacing those crimes with so-called...
Pricing Lives for Corporate Risk Decisions
May. 15, 2015—Pricing Lives for Corporate Risk Decisions ABSTRACT The 2014 GM ignition-switch recall highlighted the inadequacies of the company’s safety culture and the shortcomings of regulatory sanctions. The company’s inattention to systematic thinking about product safety can be traced to the hostile treatment of corporate risk analyses by the courts. This Article proposes that companies should...
Federalizing Education by Waiver?
May. 2, 2015—Federalizing Education by Waiver? ABSTRACT In the fall of 2011, the U.S. Secretary of Education told states he would use his statutory power to waive violations of the No Child Left Behind Act (“NCLB”), but only on the condition that they adopt his new education policies— policies that had already failed to move forward in...
Human Equity? Regulating the New Income Share Agreements
May. 2, 2015—Human Equity? Regulating the New Income Share Agreements ABSTRACT A controversial new financing phenomenon has recently emerged. New “income share agreements” (“ISAs”) enable an individual to raise funds by pledging a percentage of her future earnings to investors for a certain number of years. These contracts, which have been offered by entities such as Fantex,...
The Realities of Electoral Reform
May. 2, 2015—The Realities of Electoral Reform ABSTRACT What good are theories if they cannot be tested? Election law has wrestled with this question over the last generation. Two new theories have emerged during this period that reject conventional rights-and-interests balancing. In its place, the responsiveness theory asserts that legislators’ positions should be sensitive to changes in...
The Litigation Budget
May. 2, 2015—The Litigation Budget ABSTRACT Because of fears that litigation is too costly, reduction of litigation expenses has been the touchstone of procedural reform for the past thirty years. In certain circumstances, however, the parties have incentives—both rational and irrational—to spend more on a lawsuit than the social benefits that the case provides. Present and proposed...