January, 2018
Commodified Promises and Contract Theory
Jan. 26, 2018—Commodified Promises and Contract Response to Erik Encarnacion, Contract as Commodified Promise, 71 Vand. L. Rev. 61 (2018). AUTHOR Brian H. Bix Frederick W. Thomas Professor of Law and Philosophy, University of Minnesota.
The Transparency Tax
Jan. 18, 2018—The Transparency Tax ABSTRACT Transparency is critical to good governance, but it also imposes significant governance costs. Beyond a certain point, excess transparency acts as a kind of tax on the legal system. Others have noted the burdens of maximalist transparency policies on both budgets and regulatory efficiency, but they have largely ignored the deeper...
Contract as Commodified Promise
Jan. 18, 2018—Contract as Commodified Promise ABSTRACT Many scholars assume that lawmakers should design contract law with the goal of facilitating commercial promises. But the question of which promises count as commercial remains neglected. This Article argues that this question matters more than one might initially expect. Once we understand commerciality in terms of commodification—roughly, treating something...
Adminization: Gatekeeping Consumer Contracts
Jan. 18, 2018—Adminization Gatekeeping Consumer Contracts ABSTRACT Large companies and debt collectors frequently file unmeritorious claims against consumers. Recent high-profile actions brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau against J.P. Morgan, Citibank, and other large debt collectors illustrate the breadth and importance of this phenomenon. Due to the limited financial power of individuals, consumers often do not...
Borders and Bits
Jan. 18, 2018—Borders and Bits ABSTRACT Our personal data is everywhere and anywhere, moving across national borders in ways that defy normal expectations of how things and people travel from Point A to Point B. Yet, whereas data transits the globe without any intrinsic ties to territory, the governments that seek to access or regulate this data...
Decoding Guilty Minds: How Jurors Attribute Knowledge and Guilt
Jan. 18, 2018—Decoding Guilty Minds ABSTRACT A central tenet of Anglo-American penal law is that in order for an actor to be found criminally liable, a proscribed act must be accompanied by a guilty mind. While it is easy to understand the importance of this principle in theory, in practice it requires jurors and judges to decide what...
Signed, Sealed, Delivered—Not Yours: Why the Fair Labor Standards Act Offers a Framework for Regulating Gestational Surrogacy
Jan. 18, 2018—Signed, Sealed, Delivered ABSTRACT Over the past several decades, gestational surrogacy has emerged as a rapidly growing industry. Such growth has prompted an enormous amount of debate among scholars, human rights advocates, economists, and the media over a wide array of legal and ethical issues. This debate is perhaps most evident in the divergence of...
Restore, Revert, Repeat: Examining the Decompensation Cycle and the Due Process Limitations on the Treatment of Incompetent Defendants
Jan. 18, 2018—Restore, Revert, Repeat ABSTRACT Though correctional facilities are one of the largest providers of mental health care in the country, the treatment provided often fails to address the needs of many mentally ill inmates. Indeed, after receiving treatment at a state mental health facility, many pretrial detainees who have been recently restored to competency revert...