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Author Archives: F. E. Guerra-Pujol
The law of fantasy sports
prior probability‘s former colleague Marc Edelman, one of the top scholars in the emerging area of sports law, has written a short treatise on fantasy sports and the law. (Check out his twitter too.) Here is part of his abstract: “America is … Continue reading
Can an amendment to the Constitution be unconstitutional?
prior probability would rephrase the above question this way: what is the probability that a court will declare an amendment to the constitution unconstitutional? We often assume that all the provisions within a country’s constitution are internally consistent. But is … Continue reading
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Tagged Constitutional Amendments, International Law, Natural Law, Yaniv Roznai
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Tyler Cowen asks, “How big is your chance of dying in an ordinary day?”
See Tyler’s post here or read “The Norm Chronicles: Stories and Numbers about Danger” to find out. FYI, Tyler includes this quote from the book: “A Micromort can also be compared to a form of imaginary Russian roulette in which … Continue reading
What do you think of the new Rolling Stone cover?
Here is a more interesting question: is your reaction based on moral grounds, emotions, aesthetic considerations, or something else? In addition, we would ask, what is the probability that this provocative cover will increase (or decrease) the sales of Rolling Stone … Continue reading
Landsburg’s “Bayesian Riddle”
Economist Steven Landsburg recently posed the following Bayesian riddle here. A murder has been committed. The suspects are: Bob, a male smoker. Carol, a female smoker. Ted, another male smoker. Alice, a female non-smoker. You are quite sure that one … Continue reading
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Time travel thought experiment
If you could go back in time and share one piece of scientific knowledge from today, what time period would you choose, what would you share, and how might that information change the course of history? I am a big … Continue reading
What do juries maximize?
The great legal scholar Richard Posner once famously asked, “What do judges maximize?” Given all the publicity surrounding the “not guilty” verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin, I would ask a different question, … Continue reading
Are patent trolls efficient?
David Segal has just published this fascinating feature on patent-troll extraordinaire Erich Spangenberg in the Sunday Times under the title “Has Patent, Will Sue.” In brief, a “patent troll” is someone who buys patents and then sues firms for infringing its patents. … Continue reading
Terry Anderson on “free market environmentalism”
Economist Terry L. Anderson has been lecturing on “Environmental Markets” these last two days at the Law & Economics Institute sponsored by George Mason University. His argument is simple: instead of treating the environment as an open-access commons, we are … Continue reading
Is the FISA court constitutional?
Congress created this court in 1978, so the real question is, does Congress have the power under the Constitution to create such a secret court? Also, what does this secret court say about our commitment to the rule of law, or … Continue reading
