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Disclosure Rules in Contract Law
January 11, 2018
How does the prospect of sale affect the seller’s incentive to investigate — to acquire socially valuable information about the asset? How do the disclosure rules of contract law influence the investigation decision? Shavell (1994) showed that, if sellers and buyers are symmetrically informed, at the pre-investigation stage, then a mandatory disclosure rule leads to a first-best outcome, and a voluntary disclosure rule leads to a suboptimal outcome. But in many real-world cases owners of assets...
January 11, 2018
How does the prospect of sale affect the seller’s incentive to investigate — to acquire socially valuable information about the asset? How do the disclosure rules of contract law influence the investigation decision? Shavell (1994) showed that, if sellers and buyers are symmetrically informed, at the pre-investigation stage, then a mandatory disclosure rule leads to a first-best outcome, and a voluntary disclosure rule leads to a suboptimal outcome. But in many real-world cases owners of assets...
Lande on Negotiation Theory
January 10, 2018
John Lande (University of Missouri School of Law) has posted Taming the Jungle of Negotiation Theories (First published in The Negotiator's Desk Reference (Chris Honeyman & Andrea Kupfer Schneider, eds. DRI Press 2017)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: To identify the range of issues covered in negotiation theory, this chapter surveys negotiation texts from various disciplines including law, business, economics, labor, international relations, and social sciences. This chapter demonstrates...
January 10, 2018
John Lande (University of Missouri School of Law) has posted Taming the Jungle of Negotiation Theories (First published in The Negotiator's Desk Reference (Chris Honeyman & Andrea Kupfer Schneider, eds. DRI Press 2017)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: To identify the range of issues covered in negotiation theory, this chapter surveys negotiation texts from various disciplines including law, business, economics, labor, international relations, and social sciences. This chapter demonstrates...
Conflict Resolution by the Numbers
January 10, 2018
This essay of memorial appreciation of mathematician, game theorist, decision scientist and negotiation analyst Harvard professor Howard Raiffa explores some of Raiffa’s contributions to multi-party negotiations, as the number of negotiators (N …) and issues affect process choices in structuring negotiation. Howard Raiffa was an intellectual giant and a wise and kind man who influenced many decision scientists, negotiators, academics in many fields and practitioners of the art and science of decision...
January 10, 2018
This essay of memorial appreciation of mathematician, game theorist, decision scientist and negotiation analyst Harvard professor Howard Raiffa explores some of Raiffa’s contributions to multi-party negotiations, as the number of negotiators (N …) and issues affect process choices in structuring negotiation. Howard Raiffa was an intellectual giant and a wise and kind man who influenced many decision scientists, negotiators, academics in many fields and practitioners of the art and science of decision...
Article on Using the Marital Deduction in Settlements
January 9, 2018
Brett Bueltel, Margaret Ryznar, & Jamie Seitz recently posted an Article entitled, Using the Marital Deduction in Settlements, Wills, Trusts, & Estates Law eJournal (2017). Provided below is an abstract of the Article: This article considers a common scenario in which a surviving spouse challenges a prenuptial agreement that granted each spouse a life estate at the other’s death, and whether the resulting settlement payment by the estate can qualify for the marital deduction when structured...
January 9, 2018
Brett Bueltel, Margaret Ryznar, & Jamie Seitz recently posted an Article entitled, Using the Marital Deduction in Settlements, Wills, Trusts, & Estates Law eJournal (2017). Provided below is an abstract of the Article: This article considers a common scenario in which a surviving spouse challenges a prenuptial agreement that granted each spouse a life estate at the other’s death, and whether the resulting settlement payment by the estate can qualify for the marital deduction when structured...
Legislating for an Effective and Legitimate System of Online Consumer Arbitration
January 9, 2018
This chapter addresses the conflict between the restrictive and negative view often taken towards consumer arbitration and the supportive and positive view often taken towards ODR by arguing that a properly designed system of online consumer arbitration can fulfil the promise of consumer arbitration while avoiding its greatest risks. After clarifying what is meant by the term “online arbitration” and addressing the important differences that exist between commercial arbitration and consumer arbitration,...
January 9, 2018
This chapter addresses the conflict between the restrictive and negative view often taken towards consumer arbitration and the supportive and positive view often taken towards ODR by arguing that a properly designed system of online consumer arbitration can fulfil the promise of consumer arbitration while avoiding its greatest risks. After clarifying what is meant by the term “online arbitration” and addressing the important differences that exist between commercial arbitration and consumer arbitration,...
Ninth Circuit Holds Arbitration Is Not State Action
January 8, 2018
In Roberts v. AT&T Mobility, No. 16-16915 (9th Cir. Dec. 11, 2017) (click here for a copy of the decision), the Ninth Circuit quickly dismissed a First Amendment challenge to a consumer arbitration by finding “[t]here is no state action here.” The plaintiffs filed a class action alleging that AT&T falsely advertised their phone service as “unlimited,” while at the same slowing down data speeds or “throttling.” In response to AT&T’s motion to compel arbitration, the plaintiffs...
January 8, 2018
In Roberts v. AT&T Mobility, No. 16-16915 (9th Cir. Dec. 11, 2017) (click here for a copy of the decision), the Ninth Circuit quickly dismissed a First Amendment challenge to a consumer arbitration by finding “[t]here is no state action here.” The plaintiffs filed a class action alleging that AT&T falsely advertised their phone service as “unlimited,” while at the same slowing down data speeds or “throttling.” In response to AT&T’s motion to compel arbitration, the plaintiffs...
Deterrence and Aggregate Litigation
January 8, 2018
This paper examines the deterrence properties of aggregate litigation and class actions, with an emphasis on positive value...
January 8, 2018
This paper examines the deterrence properties of aggregate litigation and class actions, with an emphasis on positive value...
“Sleep On It” to Boost Your Creativity
January 7, 2018
So it’s not that successful writers have more creative ideas than the rest of us. They just do a better job of listening to their inner mule when it starts talking. But what do you do if your inner mule just isn’t cooperating? Each day this week I will post a new tip (based on psychological science research, of course!) that should spur your inner mule into action. And keep in mind these tips are not just limited to generating creative writing ideas, they help spur creativity for any kind...
January 7, 2018
So it’s not that successful writers have more creative ideas than the rest of us. They just do a better job of listening to their inner mule when it starts talking. But what do you do if your inner mule just isn’t cooperating? Each day this week I will post a new tip (based on psychological science research, of course!) that should spur your inner mule into action. And keep in mind these tips are not just limited to generating creative writing ideas, they help spur creativity for any kind...
Tacotron 2: Generating Human-like Speech from Text
January 7, 2018
Generating very natural sounding speech from text (text-to-speech, TTS) has been a research goal for decades. There has been great progress in TTS research over the last few years and many individual pieces of a complete TTS system have greatly improved. Incorporating ideas from past work such as Tacotron and WaveNet, we added more improvements to end up with our new system, Tacotron 2. Our approach does not use complex linguistic and acoustic features as input. Instead, we generate human-like...
January 7, 2018
Generating very natural sounding speech from text (text-to-speech, TTS) has been a research goal for decades. There has been great progress in TTS research over the last few years and many individual pieces of a complete TTS system have greatly improved. Incorporating ideas from past work such as Tacotron and WaveNet, we added more improvements to end up with our new system, Tacotron 2. Our approach does not use complex linguistic and acoustic features as input. Instead, we generate human-like...
The Seven Most Underrated Law Schools
January 6, 2018
Christopher Ryan of Vanderbilt University and Bryan Frye of the University of Kentucky conducted the analysis that will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Alabama Law Review. Their premise is simple: Judge the quality of law schools based on where the most qualified students go. These candidates have the most at stake and gather a huge amount of information, so you can gauge school quality based on their choices. Compared to their position in the U.S. News rankings, seven law schools made...
January 6, 2018
Christopher Ryan of Vanderbilt University and Bryan Frye of the University of Kentucky conducted the analysis that will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Alabama Law Review. Their premise is simple: Judge the quality of law schools based on where the most qualified students go. These candidates have the most at stake and gather a huge amount of information, so you can gauge school quality based on their choices. Compared to their position in the U.S. News rankings, seven law schools made...
