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Category Archives: Law
Why vote?
Pay especially close attention to Congressional District #12. (Click on the map above for a larger version.) In addition, check out this damning map of “Gerrymander index scores” across the U.S. (Hat tip to rhiever for the pointer.) Why do people still vote when … Continue reading
Posted in Cheating, Deception, Law, Maps, Questions Rarely Asked
Tagged Gerrymandering, voting districts
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Testing the test
This semester (Fall 2014), we have been teaching two graduate sections of “Law & Ethics.” This is a broad survey course, and in addition to the close relation between law and ethics and the poker-like decision of whether one should settle or go to trial, my … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Ethics, Law
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Is Google a monopoly?
To be more precise, is Google a coercive or innocent monopoly under Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. (Click on the image above for a better look of search engine market shares. Also, for what it’s worth, the folks at Google … Continue reading
“Generalissimo of the Nation”
That is the subtitle of this excellent paper by our friend William Adler, a professor of American politics at Northeastern University. His short paper is about war-making and the presidency in the early republic, and it’s one of our favorite papers from this … Continue reading
Litigation Games
Is a legal trial a search for truth, like the activities of science or philosophy, or is it a combined game of skill and luck, like poker? Although we have modeled the process of litigation in our previous work as … Continue reading
Posted in Games, Law
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Law of necessity (volcanic lava edition)
The magnificent Tyler Cowen — over at Marginal Revolution — poses the following question: Is it legal to build a diversion barrier against Hawaiian lava flow? The ancient doctrine Necessitas non habet legem provides the most likely answer. County of Hawaii media image of … Continue reading
A theory of Halloween
From Giorgio Agamben, “State of Exception,” translated by Kevin Attell, (University of Chicago Press, 2005), pp. 71-72: Folklorists and anthropologists have long been familiar with those periodic feasts (such as the Anthesteria and Saturnalia of the classical world and the … Continue reading
Adjudication and the Turing Test
Legal trials resemble the Turing Test in many ways. First, let’s restate the original version of the Turing Test and then compare this test to the process of adjudication.
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, Games, Law, Philosophy, Probability
Tagged Adjudication, Turing Test
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Turing Trials?
Is the current legal system broken or in need of repair? Instead of an endless number of motions, costly discovery, and randomly-selected jurors, why don’t we try a different method of resolving legal disputes, one based on the Turing Test in computer … Continue reading
The “Paradox of the Gatecrasher” is not a paradox
There is a sizable scholarly literature discussing the so-called “Paradox of the Gatecrasher,” a simple thought experiment introduced many years ago by British philosopher L. Jonathan Cohen, an evidence problem designed to test the proper role of statistics in law. (For a … Continue reading
prior probability 