I have always appreciated the structure of the classic “problem of evil” argument – appreciated it on aesthetic and elegance grounds. You perhaps recall the general formulation: all powerful, all knowing, and all good. Any two are compatible with the existence of evil; not all three. There are many forms of argument roughly set up […]
Author Archive | Kenneth Anderson
Death Incentives
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 […]
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 […]
Ninety-Five and Pumping Iron
I’m not referring to the temperature, but this man’s age. I see Instapundit has linked to it – but I saw it on a video at my gym this afternoon, where they were running it nonstop. As a middle-aged guy striving only partly successfully and mostly unsuccessfully to get in shape, lose weight, eat healthy, […]
Opinio Juris’ Peter Spiro on the Arizona Lawsuit
Temple University law professor Peter Spiro, friend and Opinio Juris co-blogger, was interviewed by one of the Wall Street Journal blogs on the likely holdings in the Arizona lawsuit by the federal government. Parts of his WSJ response can be found here at Opinio Juris. Peter expands in a later Opinio Juris post. (I do […]
Analogies, Metaphors, and Similes
As I mentioned analogies the other day, I thought this XKCD comic would be a good accompaniment. Cass Sunstein wrote about analogical reasoning a number of years ago. Lloyd Weinreb, in what I think is the most intellectually compelling take on this – careful and venturesome at the same time – developed several articles into […]
Do Lawyers Have Any Disciplinary Comparative Advantages in Designing Financial Regulatory Reform?
An economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Kartik Athreya, recently raised a bit of ruckus with a personal-views paper titled, “Economics is Hard.” It was mentioned on Greg Mankiw’s widely-read blog, among other places, and elicited an irritated response from, among others … well, just google the article and you can get all, […]
This July 4, While Many of Us Give Thanks for the Troops
… and pray for their safety and honor their sacrifices, the chief foreign affairs correspondent for ABC news, Martha Raddatz, delivers herself of the following opinion concerning American fighting forces and drone warfare: Traditionally, when a nation went to war, it had to invest its blood and treasure, but today’s joystick-wielding drone pilots can launch […]
Lauren Leto Stereotypes Readers/Authors
I like this. HT Instapundit – I hadn’t heard of Lauren Leto and her blog before, but I found this enjoyable: Stereotyping People by Their Favorite Author (by the way – I respect every author on here, kind of) J.D. Salinger Kids who don’t fit in (duh). Stephenie Meyer People who type like this: OMG. […]
Hitch Is a Fighter
… and I have faith that Christopher, who along with his family, are old and dear friends, will beat back this cancer. Best and heartfelt wishes for a complete remission. In a statement released through his publisher Twelve, the British-born provocateur, 61, said that he has “been advised by my physician that I must undergo […]
Not Anyone’s Daughter
Earlier this year, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued perhaps the single most appalling statement of official multiculturalism I have read with regard to the United States in many years. It called for de-criminalizing what might be called a softer, gentler form of clitoral mutilation – allowing for a “ritual nick” of a girl’s clitoris […]
The Second Treatise of Government, by the Political Philosopher Barbie
H/T Instapundit and Frank Warner. So sayeth Barbie in Toy Story 3, and speaking on behalf of toys: “Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from the threat of force!”
Foreign Law and the Constitution, Kagan Edition
From the AP account of the Kagan confirmation hearing of the now presumably de rigueur question of candidates … foreign law and interpretation of the US constitution. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan says foreign law could be useful “for getting good ideas” when interpreting the Constitution but that justices should not feel bound by it … international law can […]
Gabriella Blum and Philip Heymann on Targeted Killing
By Kenneth Anderson on June 29, 2010 9:25 am in Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
Harvard professors Gabriella Blum and Philip Heymann have a new, short article online at the Harvard National Security Law Journal (which, by the way, is doing many interesting things), Law and Policy of Targeted Killing (June 27, 2010). (A version of it will appear as a chapter in their forthcoming book on terrorism and counterterrorism.) […]
David Zaring Offers a Comment on ‘Regulation by Deal’
In my earlier post from last night on the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, I asked whether the highly discretionary provisions in the legislation addressing aspects of systemic risk have the effect of “returning” us to the 2008 crisis policy of “regulation by deal.” That term comes from a paper by Steven M. Davidoff and David […]