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Tag Archives: Law
Torts II checklist
This semester we taught Torts II and studied various theories of legal liability, such as vicarious liability, strict liability, products liability, rescue (the general no-duty rule and exceptions to the rule), the Federal Tort Claims Act (federal government liability), defamation, … Continue reading
If Steve Jobs were alive today, would he be in jail?
That is the provocative question raised in this report by James B. Stewart in today’s New York Times. The Times’ report notes that Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, was the “driving force” in a conspiracy to prevent competitors from poaching Apple employees, a … Continue reading
Statutory interpretation: is a fish a “tangible object”?
It’s a federal crime to “knowingly alter, destroy, mutilate, conceal, cover up, falsify, or make a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object” with the intent of impeding or obstructing a federal investigation (italics added). But does this … Continue reading
Crowdsourcing the supreme court?
Note: the post was revised and expanded on 16 April 2014. As things currently stand, nine members of a quasi-legislative committee meet in secret to decide some of the most important cases and controversies in the U.S. (These politicians in robes are … Continue reading
Your tax dollar at work …
Check out this tax-time data visualization from our friends at fastcompany.com: We want our money back!
In defense of Aldon Smith
TMZ Sports was the first to report that police officers in Los Angeles had arrested NFL linebacker and defensive end Aldon Smith at LAX last Sunday afternoon (13 April 2014) for becoming belligerent and making a false bomb threat before boarding his flight. But before we rush … Continue reading
The Coase Theorem and the Game of Chicken
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zSe1C1l6n8 Note: this post was revised and updated on 13 April 2014. There are only two parties to this particular dispute, a public agency and a private cattle rancher (thus so-called “transaction costs” are low), so what’s preventing them from negotiating … Continue reading
A hypothetical question
The LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas recently convened a Civil Rights Summit to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964. Yet no one at the summit raised the most obvious question: is the old Civil Rights Act still … Continue reading
Do fake prediction markets work?
There’s a new information quasi-market called SciCast based on “crowd sourcing” methods and reputation effects, not on prices–i.e. participants who make the most accurate predictions move up a symbolic scoreboard but are not paid with real money. You could argue that one well-designed quasi-market is … Continue reading
Should politicians be legally liable for making false campaign promises?
To be more precise, should the tort of fraudulent misrepresentation apply to promises made by politicians running for office? (Put another way, why are most claims of fraud or deceit limited to commercial cases?) One reason politicians are generally not liable … Continue reading
prior probability 