The Legal Workshop

In this Essay, I raise a metatheoretical question concerning the relationship between what seem to be two distinct categories of projects that might be lumped together under the rubric of empirical study of judicial performance. One kind of empirical project aims broadly at developing a social-scientific theory of judging, or… Read More »

Much has been written about the process by which judges reach decisions in cases governed by the common law, but very little has been done to test this process empirically. Most empirical efforts have attempted to determine whether and to what extent judges’ political views influence their legal decisions. My… Read More »

The primary goal of the Duke Law Journal’s Symposium on Evaluating Judging, Judges, and Judicial Institutions was to bring together judges and academics researching judges. Conversations between these groups can be constructive on both sides. Judges may benefit from learning about studies that show the influences on judicial performance or… Read More »

Congress enacted the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA) to reduce plaintiffs’ lawyers’ influence in securities class actions. The PSLRA’s presumption that the class member with the largest financial interest would be named lead plaintiff was meant to ensure that the class, not a law firm, would be… Read More »

Can choice of law productively contribute to global governance? A growing body of research by law and economics scholars suggests that the answer is yes. According to this research, well designed choice-of-law rules can both create incentives for private transnational actors to behave efficiently and foster international regulatory competition that encourages national lawmakers to enact globally efficient substantive laws… Read More »

In accord with traditions celebrating the generalist judge, the federal judiciary has consistently resisted proposals for specialized courts. Outward support for specialization, if it exists at all, is confined to narrow exceptions such as bankruptcy and tax.
The romantic image of the generalist, however, is not without its costs. The… Read More »

When Rupert Murdoch launched his failed bid for Newsday last year at a price of $580 million consumer groups were up in arms.  Common Cause assailed the proposed acquisition as “a step back that will hurt our democracy.” S. Derek Turner of Free Press charged, “New York, like the rest of… Read More »

This Editorial is a response to an editorial—and accompanying article—by two of my colleagues at Cornell, Valerie Hans and Ted Eisenberg.  Their editorial persuasively argues that the admissibility of a defendant’s prior criminal record has several consistent effects: (1) it deters defendants with a record from taking the stand in… Read More »

The evidentiary treatment of a defendant’s prior criminal record is a critically important issue for the criminal justice system and for the day-to-day conduct of criminal cases.  Every year, prosecutors and police are undoubtedly influenced by the existence of prior records in charging and arrest decisions.  At trial, judges exercise… Read More »

My Article, Land Values, has two goals.  First, it explores the descriptive and normative limitations of certain “law and economics” discussions of the ownership and use of land.  Law and economics provides, among other things, “a theory of the purposive behavior of private landowners” to employ in assessing legal structures… Read More »