Blog Archives
Forget the “Carrot and Stick” Approach!
November 18, 2018
Further, newer research shows that this “carrot and stick” approach may backfire when participants are offered rewards “…for doing things that aren’t especially interesting, particularly if you watch to see what happens after the rewards stop coming.” (Id.) The participants still put off doing the unappealing task despite being offered a reward for finishing early. Procrastination still occurred. (Id.) And, this approach did not improve school attendance. Again, pupils were offered...
November 18, 2018
Further, newer research shows that this “carrot and stick” approach may backfire when participants are offered rewards “…for doing things that aren’t especially interesting, particularly if you watch to see what happens after the rewards stop coming.” (Id.) The participants still put off doing the unappealing task despite being offered a reward for finishing early. Procrastination still occurred. (Id.) And, this approach did not improve school attendance. Again, pupils were offered...
Artificial Intelligence Update: Harvard now offering free access to 6.5 million US law cases!
November 17, 2018
Harvard announced that “The Library Innovation Lab at the Harvard Law School Library has completed its Caselaw Access Project, an endeavour to digitize every reported state and federal US legal case from the 1600s to last summer.” The announcement entitled “Harvard just put more than 6 million court cases online to give legal AI a boost” included these details “Between 2013 and 2018, the Library digitized over 40 million pages of U.S. court decisions” to help AI, and explained the following: Why...
November 17, 2018
Harvard announced that “The Library Innovation Lab at the Harvard Law School Library has completed its Caselaw Access Project, an endeavour to digitize every reported state and federal US legal case from the 1600s to last summer.” The announcement entitled “Harvard just put more than 6 million court cases online to give legal AI a boost” included these details “Between 2013 and 2018, the Library digitized over 40 million pages of U.S. court decisions” to help AI, and explained the following: Why...
Google has enlisted NASA to help it prove quantum supremacy within months
November 17, 2018
Google wants NASA to help it prove quantum supremacy within a matter of months, according to a Space Act Agreement obtained by MIT Technology Review. Quantum supremacy is the idea, so far undemonstrated, that a sufficiently powerful quantum computer will be able to complete certain mathematical calculations that classical supercomputers cannot. Proving it would be a big deal because it could kick-start a market for devices that might one day crack previously unbreakable codes, boost AI, improve...
November 17, 2018
Google wants NASA to help it prove quantum supremacy within a matter of months, according to a Space Act Agreement obtained by MIT Technology Review. Quantum supremacy is the idea, so far undemonstrated, that a sufficiently powerful quantum computer will be able to complete certain mathematical calculations that classical supercomputers cannot. Proving it would be a big deal because it could kick-start a market for devices that might one day crack previously unbreakable codes, boost AI, improve...
Institutionalizing ADR: Competing Values Commentary on “Pursuing Settlement in An Adversary Culture: A Tale of Innovation Co-opted or ‘The Law of ADR’”
November 16, 2018
This is the unedited version of a short chapter in the edited collection Discussions in Dispute Resolution, which offers commentaries on the leading foundational articles in the field of Dispute Resolution or “ADR.” This essay responds to commentaries written on Carrie Menkel-Meadow’s “Pursuing Settlement in An Adversary Culture: The Co-optation of Innovation or the Law of ADR,” (1991) and discusses the problems and issues with the institutionalization of various forms of ADR in courts...
November 16, 2018
This is the unedited version of a short chapter in the edited collection Discussions in Dispute Resolution, which offers commentaries on the leading foundational articles in the field of Dispute Resolution or “ADR.” This essay responds to commentaries written on Carrie Menkel-Meadow’s “Pursuing Settlement in An Adversary Culture: The Co-optation of Innovation or the Law of ADR,” (1991) and discusses the problems and issues with the institutionalization of various forms of ADR in courts...
Diffusion of Legal Innovations: The Case of Israeli Class Actions
November 16, 2018
Under the standard model in law and economics, agents maximize expected profit subject to constraints set by legal rules. In such a model, the expected reaction to legal innovations is immediate. However, this is not what we observe after class actions have been introduced into Israeli law. For a long time, the new procedure was rarely utilized. Then, the adoption process gained momentum. We discuss alternative explanations for this phenomenon. We find that class action filings are explained not only...
November 16, 2018
Under the standard model in law and economics, agents maximize expected profit subject to constraints set by legal rules. In such a model, the expected reaction to legal innovations is immediate. However, this is not what we observe after class actions have been introduced into Israeli law. For a long time, the new procedure was rarely utilized. Then, the adoption process gained momentum. We discuss alternative explanations for this phenomenon. We find that class action filings are explained not only...
The Rationale for Motions in the Design of Adjudication
November 15, 2018
The conduct of adjudication is often influenced by motions––requests made by litigants to modify the course of adjudication. The question studied in this article is why adjudication should be designed so as to permit the use of motions. The answer developed is that litigants will naturally know a great deal about their specific matter, whereas a court will ordinarily know little except to the degree that the court has already invested effort to appreciate it. By giving litigants the right to bring...
November 15, 2018
The conduct of adjudication is often influenced by motions––requests made by litigants to modify the course of adjudication. The question studied in this article is why adjudication should be designed so as to permit the use of motions. The answer developed is that litigants will naturally know a great deal about their specific matter, whereas a court will ordinarily know little except to the degree that the court has already invested effort to appreciate it. By giving litigants the right to bring...
Seventh Circuit Ducks Hard Question on Class Arbitrability
November 15, 2018
The Seventh Circuit issued an opinion last week that sounded like it would be a big deal. The case, Herrington v. Waterstone Mortgage Corp., 2018 WL 5116905 (7th Cir. Oct. 22, 2018), dealt with the fallout from SCOTUS’s Epic Systems, and addressed a class arbitrability issue of first impression, which meant it could have been epic indeed. But instead, the decision is a fizzle that punts all the truly exciting issues back to the district court. Herrington began in court as a collective...
November 15, 2018
The Seventh Circuit issued an opinion last week that sounded like it would be a big deal. The case, Herrington v. Waterstone Mortgage Corp., 2018 WL 5116905 (7th Cir. Oct. 22, 2018), dealt with the fallout from SCOTUS’s Epic Systems, and addressed a class arbitrability issue of first impression, which meant it could have been epic indeed. But instead, the decision is a fizzle that punts all the truly exciting issues back to the district court. Herrington began in court as a collective...
Making Firms Liable for Consumers’ Mistaken Beliefs: Applications to the U.S. Mortgage and Credit Card Markets
November 14, 2018
In theory, an introduction of a liability on firms, related to the difference between consumers’ beliefs and the effective terms of purchase/contract, can improve both social welfare and consumer surplus, depending on the relative magnitudes of: (1) decrease in the gap between the beliefs and the effective terms of the contract due to the introduction of the liability, (2) output decrease or price increase, and (3) efficiency of administering the liability (and the amount transferred). I do not find...
November 14, 2018
In theory, an introduction of a liability on firms, related to the difference between consumers’ beliefs and the effective terms of purchase/contract, can improve both social welfare and consumer surplus, depending on the relative magnitudes of: (1) decrease in the gap between the beliefs and the effective terms of the contract due to the introduction of the liability, (2) output decrease or price increase, and (3) efficiency of administering the liability (and the amount transferred). I do not find...
Alabama Won’t Enforce Arbitration With Nursing Home When Patient Had Dementia
November 14, 2018
Every time I think the spate of state supreme court opinions about nursing home arbitration surely must be over, another one comes out to prove me wrong. Last week, it was one from Alabama, finding an arbitration agreement was never formed, because the resident lacked capacity and the daughter who signed on his behalf lacked power of attorney. In Stephan v. Millennium Nursing & Rehab Ctr., 2018 WL 4846501 (Ala. Oct. 5, 2018), the decedent’s estate sued the nursing home for wrongful death. ...
November 14, 2018
Every time I think the spate of state supreme court opinions about nursing home arbitration surely must be over, another one comes out to prove me wrong. Last week, it was one from Alabama, finding an arbitration agreement was never formed, because the resident lacked capacity and the daughter who signed on his behalf lacked power of attorney. In Stephan v. Millennium Nursing & Rehab Ctr., 2018 WL 4846501 (Ala. Oct. 5, 2018), the decedent’s estate sued the nursing home for wrongful death. ...
Bankruptcy Claims Trading
November 13, 2018
A robust secondary market has emerged over the past 20 years in the debt of Chapter 11 firms. Critics worry that the trading associated with this market has undermined bankruptcy governance by forcing managers to negotiate with shifting groups of activist investors in the Chapter 11 bargaining process. This article investigates whether this is a common problem and concludes that it is not. Although trading of bond debt is pervasive, the activist groups that tend to participate in negotiations usually...
November 13, 2018
A robust secondary market has emerged over the past 20 years in the debt of Chapter 11 firms. Critics worry that the trading associated with this market has undermined bankruptcy governance by forcing managers to negotiate with shifting groups of activist investors in the Chapter 11 bargaining process. This article investigates whether this is a common problem and concludes that it is not. Although trading of bond debt is pervasive, the activist groups that tend to participate in negotiations usually...
