Author Archive | Eric Posner

Ken Anderson has been working up a head of a steam about the incipient hypocrisy of Democrats who are quietly adopting Bush administration positions, or moderate variants thereof, after having spent eight years calling these very positions idiotic & criminal & similar things

The American Law and Economics Association is holding its annual meeting May 15-16 at the University of San Diego. The deadline for submission is January 9th, but it is hoped that most people will submit papers by mid-December. The annual meeting is a lot of fun. In past years (and this year as well, I […]

Such a pardon would be a generous Christmas gift to the Obama administration, which appears to want to avoid prosecutions. It would greatly disappoint a lot of Obama supporters, but these people could not blame Obama for pardons issued by Bush. At the same time, Bush would protect loyal administration officials. So a pardon would […]

It turns out that luck, not pluck, explains success. This thesis mirrors the old battle over criminal responsibility between conservatives who blame criminals and liberals who blame society.

So says ABC news. A good appointment? I don’t know. Enthusiasts say that the appointment of a close advisor of President-elect Obama shows that the United States will finally take the UN seriously. She is a “progressive” after all, or so they say. Do they know what Rice thinks of the UN Charter? About the […]

Tim Lambert says that the UNICEF data that I rely on have been revised, and that child mortality was not higher during the sanctions regime than it is today. See his post for links to more recent reports. The case for the humanitarian effect of the war, then, would rest on the improvement in political […]

By Jack Goldsmith and me, here.

Remember how the oversight mechanisms were one of Congress’s big contributions to Paulson’s original three-page bill? See this Washington Post article by Amit R. Paley: Yet for all this activity, no formal action has been taken to fill the independent oversight posts established by Congress when it approved the bailout to prevent corruption and government […]

Steven Davidoff and David Zaring have been among the most interesting law bloggers on the financial crisis. Here is an extremely useful draft that puts together and updates their earlier work, emphasizing the “regulation by deal” approach of the government. They see legal constraints where Adrian Vermeule and I see black and gray holes exploited […]

See here. (I tried posting this originally on the VC website but the software handles tables very poorly.) Update: Correction here. Update: Tim Lambert says the UNICEF data I relied on have been revised and show no improvement from the sanctions regime.

Here are some of its predictions for 2025, with some comments. A global multipolar system is emerging with the rise of China, India, and others. The relative power of nonstate actors—businesses, tribes, religious organizations, and even criminal networks—also will increase. By 2025 a single “international community” composed of nation-states will no longer exist. Power will […]

In light of the bipartisan enthusiasm that has met this rumor, it might seem churlish to recall that Clinton has little foreign policy experience. You might remember the who-has-less-foreign-policy-experience debate during the primary; if you don’t, click here for a sobering reminder. It’s not as though the Democrats lack qualified people. Take the rusty-nail-and-broken-glass-chewing Richard […]

A paper (coauthored with Adrian Vermeule) is here; some of the ideas I contributed to it originated as posts on this blog. The abstract follows. This essay compares crisis governance and emergency lawmaking after 9/11 and the financial meltdown of 2008. We argue that the two episodes were broadly similar in outline, but importantly different […]

As discussions continue, the following facts should be kept in mind. 1. If some detainees are released or tried in civilian courts, many others will not be released because they are too dangerous, and will not receive regular civilian trials because of security issues. Many other such people