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Behavioral Law & Economics
February 19, 2018
Christoph Engel (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods) has posted The Proper Scope of Behavioral Law and Economics on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Behavioral law and economics applies the conceptual tools of behavioral economics to the analysis of legal problems and legal intervention. These models, and the experiments to test them, assume an institution free state of nature. In modern societies, the law’s subjects never see this state of nature. However, a rich arrangement...
February 19, 2018
Christoph Engel (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods) has posted The Proper Scope of Behavioral Law and Economics on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Behavioral law and economics applies the conceptual tools of behavioral economics to the analysis of legal problems and legal intervention. These models, and the experiments to test them, assume an institution free state of nature. In modern societies, the law’s subjects never see this state of nature. However, a rich arrangement...
The Mistakes You Make in a Meeting’s First Milliseconds
February 16, 2018
A growing body of research shows the snap judgments people make about others’ trustworthiness are wrong more often than most people think. These first impressions are formed in milliseconds, based on instinctive responses in the brain’s emotion-processing center, the amygdala. Some people conclude a stranger is reliable because he or she looks like someone trustworthy the person already knows, says Alexander Todorov, a leading researcher and author of a 2017 book on the topic, “Face Value:...
February 16, 2018
A growing body of research shows the snap judgments people make about others’ trustworthiness are wrong more often than most people think. These first impressions are formed in milliseconds, based on instinctive responses in the brain’s emotion-processing center, the amygdala. Some people conclude a stranger is reliable because he or she looks like someone trustworthy the person already knows, says Alexander Todorov, a leading researcher and author of a 2017 book on the topic, “Face Value:...
Patent Litigation at the District Court Level
February 15, 2018
In the final quarter of 2017, a total of 981 patent cases were filed in U.S. District Courts, a 1.3% decrease over the previous quarter’s total of 994 cases. Cases filed in the calendar year 2017 (4,057 cases) represent a decline of 10.3% over 2016 (with 4,529 cases). Perhaps the most notable event of 2017 was the Supreme Court issuing its opinion in T.C. Heartland on May 22, holding unanimously that, under 28 U.S.C. § 1400(b) (the statute governing venue in patent suits), a domestic corporation...
February 15, 2018
In the final quarter of 2017, a total of 981 patent cases were filed in U.S. District Courts, a 1.3% decrease over the previous quarter’s total of 994 cases. Cases filed in the calendar year 2017 (4,057 cases) represent a decline of 10.3% over 2016 (with 4,529 cases). Perhaps the most notable event of 2017 was the Supreme Court issuing its opinion in T.C. Heartland on May 22, holding unanimously that, under 28 U.S.C. § 1400(b) (the statute governing venue in patent suits), a domestic corporation...
The “Empirical Turn” in Family Law
February 14, 2018
As empirical legal scholarship continues to expand, its expansion increasingly penetrates new and interesting legal spaces. Many of these new legal spaces, including, e.g., family law, include hotly-contested legal, political, and social issues. Clare Huntington's (Fordham) recent paper, The Empirical Turn in Family Law, seeks to develop a "framework to guide the use of this [empirical] evidence" in the family law space. For Huntington, a carefully constructed "framework" is necessary due to potential...
February 14, 2018
As empirical legal scholarship continues to expand, its expansion increasingly penetrates new and interesting legal spaces. Many of these new legal spaces, including, e.g., family law, include hotly-contested legal, political, and social issues. Clare Huntington's (Fordham) recent paper, The Empirical Turn in Family Law, seeks to develop a "framework to guide the use of this [empirical] evidence" in the family law space. For Huntington, a carefully constructed "framework" is necessary due to potential...
ROSS Unveils EVA, A Free AI Tool To Analyze Briefs, Check Cites and Find Similar Cases
February 13, 2018
The new product is called EVA. In a nutshell, it is a brief analyzer. But it is more than that. Most notably, it is also a tool for checking the subsequent history of cited cases and determining if they are still good law, in the vein of the LexisNexis Shepard’s and Thomson Reuters KeyCite. It also can be used to find other cases that are similar to a given case or to find cases that have similar language or that contain the same quotes. ROSS says EVA will supercharge a lawyer’s research....
February 13, 2018
The new product is called EVA. In a nutshell, it is a brief analyzer. But it is more than that. Most notably, it is also a tool for checking the subsequent history of cited cases and determining if they are still good law, in the vein of the LexisNexis Shepard’s and Thomson Reuters KeyCite. It also can be used to find other cases that are similar to a given case or to find cases that have similar language or that contain the same quotes. ROSS says EVA will supercharge a lawyer’s research....
Behavioral Probability
February 8, 2018
Throughout their long history, humans have worked hard to tame chance. They adapted to their uncertain physical and social...
February 8, 2018
Throughout their long history, humans have worked hard to tame chance. They adapted to their uncertain physical and social...
Family Law & Empirical Legal Studies
February 7, 2018
Clare Huntington (Fordham University School of Law) has posted The Empirical Turn in Family Law (Columbia Law Review, Vol. 118, No. 227, 2018) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Historically, the legal system justified family law’s rules and policies through morality, common sense, and prevailing cultural norms. In a sharp departure, and consistent with a broader trend across the legal system, empirical evidence increasingly dominates the regulation of families. There is much to celebrate in this...
February 7, 2018
Clare Huntington (Fordham University School of Law) has posted The Empirical Turn in Family Law (Columbia Law Review, Vol. 118, No. 227, 2018) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Historically, the legal system justified family law’s rules and policies through morality, common sense, and prevailing cultural norms. In a sharp departure, and consistent with a broader trend across the legal system, empirical evidence increasingly dominates the regulation of families. There is much to celebrate in this...
Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts
February 4, 2018
Poker champion turned business consultant Annie Duke teaches you how to get comfortable with uncertainty and make better decisions as a result. In Super Bowl XLIX, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll made one of the most controversial calls in football history: With 26 seconds remaining, and trailing by four at the Patriots' one-yard line, he called for a pass instead of a hand off to his star running back. The pass was intercepted and the Seahawks lost. Critics called it the dumbest play in history....
February 4, 2018
Poker champion turned business consultant Annie Duke teaches you how to get comfortable with uncertainty and make better decisions as a result. In Super Bowl XLIX, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll made one of the most controversial calls in football history: With 26 seconds remaining, and trailing by four at the Patriots' one-yard line, he called for a pass instead of a hand off to his star running back. The pass was intercepted and the Seahawks lost. Critics called it the dumbest play in history....
Force Overtime? Or Go for the Win?
February 4, 2018
Most other National Football League teams behave this way, too. In research to be published in the forthcoming issue of The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, we examined every instance over a recent 10-year period in which N.F.L. teams faced a choice in the final minutes between kicking an extra point to tie the game or going for a 2-point conversion to win. The teams overwhelmingly chose to avoid the risk of immediate defeat: Of the 47 times teams faced this situation, they opted...
February 4, 2018
Most other National Football League teams behave this way, too. In research to be published in the forthcoming issue of The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, we examined every instance over a recent 10-year period in which N.F.L. teams faced a choice in the final minutes between kicking an extra point to tie the game or going for a 2-point conversion to win. The teams overwhelmingly chose to avoid the risk of immediate defeat: Of the 47 times teams faced this situation, they opted...
Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Machine Learning Will Revolutionize the Practice of Law. Part One. [VIDEO]
February 3, 2018
Studies have shown that physicians are correct in their diagnoses about 50% of the time. The increasing sophistication and utilization of artificial intelligence has the potential to drastically improve medicine by aggregating patient information and data, which will allow for more accurate diagnoses more often. A similar application of artificial intelligence has the potential to revolutionize and improve a number of other fields as well. See Ross Fishman, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data,...
February 3, 2018
Studies have shown that physicians are correct in their diagnoses about 50% of the time. The increasing sophistication and utilization of artificial intelligence has the potential to drastically improve medicine by aggregating patient information and data, which will allow for more accurate diagnoses more often. A similar application of artificial intelligence has the potential to revolutionize and improve a number of other fields as well. See Ross Fishman, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data,...
