This paper develops a general model of anticommons fragmentation in property. Using several related examples, we consider the equilibria obtained under different scenarios. The various illustrations are later utilized to develop a model of fragmented property. The model reveals that the private...

The information created and disseminated through the litigation process can have social value. Suppose a long-lived plaintiff is suing a defendant for damages sustained in an accident. The plaintiff may suffer similar damages in future accidents involving different defendants. Potential injurers...

We examine the importance of agents' private information about their accident proneness and action, when the principal delegates via an optimal auction the undertaking of a risky activity to an agent. A unique feature of our model is that the risk-neutral principal can provide, at no cost,...

This paper explores the location decisions of final-good producers under imperfect contract enforcement. The legal systems'; quality is measured by the contracting environment in each country. The final producers'; location decisions create different outcomes in terms of efficiency. We find one...

Increasing access charges and transactions costs arising from monopoly rights in data and information adversely affect the conduct of science, especially exploratory research programs. The latter are critical for the sustained growth of knowledge-driven economies, and are most efficiently...

We clarify the conventional claims concerning the most popular damage measures: expectation damages (ED), constant damages (CD), and reliance damages (RD). We strictly examine strategies versus outcomes in equilibrium and make several new investigations. In terms of equilibrium outcomes, we...

The constitutional incorporation of international human-rights law is often seen as one of the most powerful ways in which treaty norms can be enforced at the local level. This paper examines empirically if and how human-rights treaties alter rights commitments in national constitutions....

Wrongful convictions may increase the level of crime over the ideal case of their absence. The problem of wrongful conviction is most serious in areas where crime is endemic and for certain groups of citizens who are stereotyped. State liability mitigates this problem; compensating the...

The veil of uncertainty as an analytical device has been adopted by Buchanan in his works, and this paper argues that the Coase Theorem can be represented by the analytical device of a single owner-wealth maximization apparatus. On the surface, these two analytical devices are unrelated, but the...

Legal rules may be general (that is, applicable to a broad range of situations) or specific. Adopting a custom-tailored rule for a specific activity permits the regulator to make efficient use of information about the social costs and benefits of that activity. However, the rule maker typically...