Topic
Common law
About: Common law is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 30135 publications have been published within this topic receiving 280701 citations. The topic is also known as: judicial precedent & judge-made law.
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Book•
01 Jan 1981
TL;DR: For example, Posner as discussed by the authors argues that the logic of the law, in many ways but not all, appears to be an economic one: that judges, for example, in interpreting the common law, act as if they were trying to maximize economic welfare.
Abstract: Richard A. Posner is probably the leading scholar in the rapidly growing field of the economics of law; he is also an extremely lucid writer. In this book, he applies economic theory to four areas of interest to students of social and legal institutions: the theory of justice, primitive and ancient social and legal institutions, the law and economics of privacy and reputation, and the law and economics of racial discrimination. The book is designed to display the power of economics to organize and illuminate diverse fields in the study of nonmarket behavior and institutions. A central theme is the importance of uncertainty to an understanding of social and legal institutions. Another major theme is that the logic of the law, in many ways but not all, appears to be an economic one: that judges, for example, in interpreting the common law, act as if they were trying to maximize economic welfare. Part I examines the deficiencies of utilitarianism as both a positive and a normative basis of understanding law, ethics, and social institutions, and suggests in its place the economist's concept of "wealth maximization." Part II, an examination of the social and legal institutions of archaic societies, notably that of ancient Greece and primitive societies, argues that economic analysis holds the key to understanding such diverse features of these societies as reciprocal gift-giving, blood guilt, marriage customs, liability rules, and the prestige accorded to generosity. Many topics relevant to modern social and philosophical debate, including the origin of the state and the retributive theory of punishment, are addressed. Parts III and IV deal with more contemporary social andjurisprudential questions. Part III is an economic analysis of privacy and the statutory and common law rules that protect privacy and related interests-rules that include the tort law of privacy, assault and battery, and defamation. Finally, Part IV examines, again from an economic standpoint, the controversial areas of racial and sexual discrimination, with special reference to affirmative action. Both Part III and Part IV develop as a subtheme the issue of proper standards of constitutional adjudication by the Supreme Court.
441 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the view that non-U.S. firms cross-list in the United States to increase protection of their minority shareholders and find that firms from French Civil Law countries, which have relatively weak protections for minority shareholders, are more likely to crosslist on an organized exchange than firms from English Common Law countries.
Abstract: This paper examines the view that non-U.S. firms cross-list in the United States to increase protection of their minority shareholders. We find that firms from French Civil Law countries, which have relatively weak protections for minority shareholders, are more likely to cross-list on an organized exchange than firms from English Common Law countries. Since listing on an organized exchange subjects the firm to U.S. securities law and requires the firm to conform to U.S. GAAP while listing a firm OTC or 144a does not, this finding is consistent with the view that firms from French Civil Law countries attempt to protect their minority shareholders by cross-listing. Subsequent to cross-listing in the U.S., equity offerings increase from firms from all countries, with larger post-cross-listing offerings from countries with lower shareholder protections. Equity offerings increase both in the U.S. and outside the U.S. Finally there is an association between shareholder protection in the home country and the location (U.S. or non-U.S.) of the equity offering, with non-U.S. offering more likely from countries with few shareholder protections. Overall, the pattern of cross-listing and equity offerings we observe in this paper suggests that bonding occurs when we expect it to be important, and that a significant reason for cross-listing in the U.S. is the legal protections of U.S. securities laws that are associated with the cross-listing.
425 citations
Book•
01 Dec 1996
TL;DR: The People's Welfare as discussed by the authors explores the history of government regulation in America, including fire regulations, inspection and licensing rules, fair marketplace laws, the moral policing of prostitution and drunkenness, and health and sanitary codes.
Abstract: Much of today's political rhetoric decries the welfare state and our maze of government regulations. Critics hark back to a time before the state intervened so directly in citizens' lives. In The People's Welfare , William Novak refutes this vision of a stateless past by documenting America's long history of government regulation in the areas of public safety, political economy, public property, morality, and public health. Challenging the myth of American individualism, Novak recovers a distinctive nineteenth-century commitment to shared obligations and public duties in a well-regulated society. Novak explores the by-laws, ordinances, statutes, and common law restrictions that regulated almost every aspect of America's society and economy, including fire regulations, inspection and licensing rules, fair marketplace laws, the moral policing of prostitution and drunkenness, and health and sanitary codes. Based on a reading of more than one thousand court cases in addition to the leading legal and political texts of the nineteenth century, The People's Welfare demonstrates the deep roots of regulation in America and offers a startling reinterpretation of the history of American governance. |This analytical study describes the growth of a close but uneasy relationship between the United States and Taiwan during the first half of the 1950s. Accinelli focuses on the importance of the Taiwan issue in United States' relations with the People's Republic of China and Great Britain.
417 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1969
TL;DR: In this article, a concise history and analysis of the civil law tradition is presented for the general reader and students of law, which is dominant in most of Europe, all of Latin America, and many parts of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
Abstract: Designed for the general reader and students of law, this is a concise history and analysis of the civil law tradition, which is dominant in most of Europe, all of Latin America, and many parts of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. This new edition deals with recent significant events& such as the fall of the Soviet empire and the resulting precipitous decline of the socialist legal tradition& and their significance for the civil law tradition. The book also incorporates the findings of recent important literature on the legal cultures of civil law countries.
404 citations