Category Archives: Uncategorized

Gödel’s loophole and Trump’s trade war: opening remarks

N.B.: Below is an excerpt (part 1 of 3) of my upcoming talk this weekend at the 2025 South-North Exchange on Theory, Culture, and Law at the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad de México (UACM). The theme of this year’s meeting … Continue reading

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The cruel lesson of the Insular Cases

Why are the Insular Cases of yore relevant to the current batch of Trump tariff cases of today? Although the legal issues are different, the Insular Cases are still relevant today because they show us how the “constitutional law game” … Continue reading

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A possible nefarious precedent for the Trump tariffs: Downes v. Bidwell

As I mentioned in a previous post, I see some possible parallels between Downes v. Bidwell, one of the infamous “Insular Cases” decided in 1901, and President Donald J. Trump’s controversial “Liberation Day” tariffs. Although Downes v. Bidwell involved an … Continue reading

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Monday music: Daydreaming

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*The philosopher’s muses: Adam Smith in the salons of Paris*

That is the title of my most recent work-in-progress with Alain Alcouffe (University of Toulouse). Below the fold is our revised introduction (footnotes omitted):

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Does President Trump have the legal authority to impose tariffs under the IEEPA?

You may have heard by now that two different federal courts have invalidated most of President Trump’s tariffs. Below are some relevant links via the Volokh Conspiracy blog: Both cases, however, are now being appealed, and in the meantime, Professor … Continue reading

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Adam Smith in the salons of Paris: concluding remarks

Alain Alcouffe and I now wish to conclude our series of blog posts on “Adam Smith and the salons of Paris” with a question and with a tentative observation. Specifically, did the salons of pre-revolutionary Paris have any influence on … Continue reading

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Additional places in pre-revolutionary Paris that Adam Smith visited

In addition to the Parisian salons of Madame du Deffand, the Duchesse d’Enville, and the Comtesse de Boufflers (see our previous posts in this series), the Scottish philosopher and political economist Adam Smith also visited several other noteworthy places in … Continue reading

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Adam Smith in Le Temple

Note: This blog post is based on the first draft of part 6 of my forthcoming paper with Alain Alcouffe, “Adam Smith and the salons of pre-revolutionary Paris” (footnotes omitted): In addition to the celebrated salons of Madame du Deffand … Continue reading

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Francesca Gino update

I have been following this case closely and have blogged about it before. (See here, here, here, and here.) In brief, Francesca Gino, the disgraced Harvard Business School (HBS) professor who was celebrated for her research on honesty and ethical … Continue reading

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