Mean Professor Anderson made his first year law and economics class memorize Greg Mankiw’s ten basic principles of economics, including … incentives matter. Also, people make decisions at the margin. One of the interesting questions – more than interesting, genuinely crucial to how one understands and interacts with other people – is when those heuristics […]
Archive | 2010
The Black Knight of Strasbourg
The US and the EU have negotiated over travel reservation data three times in the last six years. A US law enacted after 9/11 requires that airlines transporting travelers to the US provide information from the airline reservation about those travelers. Europeans have been antsy about that requirement since 2003, and they’ve initiated three rounds […]
Kerstein on Greenwald
A few days back, Instapundit linked to this scathing and reasonably entertaining attack on Glenn Greenwald by Benjamin Kerstein. At the time, I thought about linking to it, with a post along the lines of: “here’s a link to an entertaining attack on Glenn Greenwald. It’s well-written, unfair, a bit hysterical, with some grains of […]
Serious Questions About the Veracity of Michael Bellesiles’s Latest Tale
A few days ago, questions were raised first by Big Journalism and then by me about a story that Michael Bellesiles published in the June 27th issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education: Teaching Military History in a Time of War. I have now read through every DoD casualty report from last fall for both […]
Religious Exemption Law Map of the United States
For background on what this all means, see here. Many thanks to Donna Gulnac of the UCLA law library for turning the spreadsheet into this map.
Fifth Circuit Holds That Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act Mandates Exemption from School Hair-Length Restriction
The case is A.A. v. Needville Indep. School Dist., decided today; the opinion is written by Judge Higginbotham and joined by Judge Wiener, but Judge Jolly dissents. Here is the opening paragraph of the majority opinion: A Native American boy and his parents challenge a school district’s requirement that he wear his long hair in […]
What if I had been a law professor in 1935?
While this is certainly a question that no-one is asking, there is an answer. The latest episode of Colorado Inside-Out, from Colorado Public Television channel 12 in Denver, is our annual “time machine” program. This year’s show is set in 1935. I’m Westminster Law School bankruptcy professor Israel Ben Koplowitz. Patricia Calhoun (real-life publisher of […]
The Horace/Google Principle and “to Effectuate” vs. “to Effect”
A commenter faults me for saying “to effectuate the legislature’s likely intent,” and suggests that “to effect the legislature’s likely intent” would “surely” have been better. This led me to a bit of research that I thought might be worth reporting, just as an example of a particular approach to usage that I tend to […]
Scrivener’s Error
The Louisiana cyber-tormenting statute also has an error in it: It says that “The provisions of this Section shall not be construed to prohibit or restrict religious free speech pursuant to Article I, Section 18 of the Constitution of Louisiana,” but the religious freedom provision of the Louisiana Constitution is in section 8, and section […]
It’s Now a Crime in Louisiana to Electronically Communicate With “Intent to … Abuse [or] Torment” a Minor
A newly enacted statute, Rev. Stat. 14:40.7 provides, in relevant part: A. Cyberbullying is the transmission of any electronic textual, visual, written, or oral communication with the malicious and willful intent to coerce, abuse, torment, or intimidate a person under the age of eighteen. B… (2) “Electronic textual, visual, written, or oral communication” means any […]
Financial Regulation Reform – AALS Call for Papers
By Kenneth Anderson on July 9, 2010 1:03 pm in Finance, Law Schools, Legal Professor, Legal Scholarship, Regulation
The American Association of Law Schools section on financial regulation is seeking paper proposals for the January meeting on all topics of financial regulation and regulatory reform. The deadline for proposal submissions is August 1, fast approaching; I have posted details below the fold, and you can also contact my colleague Anna Gelpern with any […]
Into the Home Stretch:
So we’re down to the final question: Who to root for on Sunday? [And who will win? See below] It’s a pretty complicated tangle. If it were a simple question (as it usually is, for me) of “Who’s playing the most beautiful and creative football?,” it would be easy to get behind Spain, who were […]
Museum Curators on Trial for Blasphemy
[UPDATE, July 12, 2010: The curators have been convicted and fined.] The AP reports: [T]he two prominent Moscow art curators who put on [an art] show are facing the prospect of three years in prison … [under] the law against inciting religious hatred…. In one [painting in the show], Christ appeared to his disciples as […]
Sacramento County Sheriff Threatens to Issue More Concealed-Carry Permits
[UPDATE: Yow! Reader Gene Hoffman points out that the post below is from last year and not this one; very sorry I missed this — how embarrassing.] From the KCRA TV site: Faced with the potential loss of 300 deputies due to budget cuts, the Sacramento County sheriff may consider issuing more concealed weapons permits…. […]
5 Books on American Conservatism by Mitch Daniels:
This is an impressive list: Hayek, Friedman, Murray, Olson, and Postrel. Perhaps even more amazing is that I believe him when he says he has actually read and appreciated these books, which is not something that I could say about most politicians.