Author Archive | Sasha Volokh

This post continues my series on my upcoming Stanford Law Review paper on Privatization and the Law and Economics of Political Advocacy (see here for the technical paper). The last post set out the basic economic model — read that post, if you haven’t already and if you want to understand this post. This post […]

This post continues my series on my upcoming Stanford Law Review paper on Privatization and the Law and Economics of Political Advocacy (see here for the technical paper). This installment is not connected to privatization specifically at all, much less prisons, but gives (in plain English) the basic economic theory behind public goods and free […]

In my previous post, I introduced my forthcoming Stanford Law Review article, Privatization and the Law and Economics of Political Advocacy. (Again, for those who are interested in a more technical exposition, you can also check out my related economics paper.) I explained the nature of the political-influence argument against privatization, and quoted from recent […]

As I noted in a recent post, I’m delighted to be publishing my article, Privatization and the Law and Economics of Political Advocacy, with the Stanford Law Review. (Those of you who want to read something more technical can check out my economics paper on the subject, Privatization, Free-Riding, and Industry-Expanding Lobbying.) This will be […]

Orin recently announced that his article on Four Models of Fourth Amendment Protection is forthcoming in the Stanford Law Review. I’m delighted to report that I, too, have accepted a publication offer with Stanford — in my case, for my article on Privatization and the Law and Economics of Political Advocacy. (The link in the […]

Speaking of new papers, I’m glad to have finally gotten my paper on Privatization and the Law and Economics of Political Advocacy out the door and submitted to law reviews. The paper is available from SSRN, and so is the companion technical paper. (The companion technical paper is called Privatization, Free-Riding, and Industry-Expanding Lobbying. I […]

Every single poll about the upcoming French presidential election is consistent with the following statements: Moderate-right candidate François Bayrou would beat either of the other two main candidates, conservative Nicolas Sarkozy or socialist Ségolène Royal, in a two-way race. The second round of the presidential elections is such a two-way race, among the top two […]

The Critical Legal Studies movement is heavily influenced by the deconstruction movement. Jack Balkin explains how deconstruction as a literary and philosophical tool migrated into the law, in his 2005 Cardozo Law Review article Deconstruction’s Legal Career: Deconstruction began as a series of techniques invented by Jacques Derrida, Paul de Man, and others to analyze […]

The Washington Post has a cool photo gallery of candidates for the New Seven Wonders of the World. Take a look at the pictures, but don’t pay that much attention to the descriptions. For instance, apparently the “ancient city” of Machu Picchu was “founded by Yale University professor Hiram Bingham in 1911.” That’s pretty ancient! […]

Check out Dahlia Lithwick’s article on Supreme Court signing bonuses. However, do not check out the Washington Post version of the article, where my quote was left on the cutting room floor!

Emily Yoffe writes in Slate of the experience of being fiftysomething and joining Facebook. She writes: “I provided a photograph and minimal information for my profile . . . and waited for the ‘friending’ to begin. (You can try to resist, but friend is now a verb.)” I did once try to resist, but then, […]

In the comments to the previous Ask Etymology Ethelwulf post, In Which I Gave The True Etymology Of The World “Umbrella,” a commenter asked me to explain “agnostic,” “helicopter,” “amnesia,” and “pregnant.” I did so in the comments, but who reads the comments anyway? So I thought these new etymologies (with minor alterations) were worth […]

A gentle reader asks, Where the heck does the word “umbrella” come from? This story takes us on a fascinating etymological odyssey, which only became clear to me when, while reading the Alliterative Morte Arthure today in my medieval reading group at Georgetown Law, I came across the verbs umbeclap and umbelap. (You can find […]

My paper I’ve recently been working on, Property Rights and Contract Form in Medieval Europe, is now up on SSRN. Here’s the abstract: Throughout western Europe, beginning about 1200, leasing of feudal lords’ estates became more common relative to direct management. In England, however, direct management increased beginning around the same time and until the […]

Commenters on my recent post about the constitutionality of the Air Force wonder whether there really are any serious constitutional law scholars who use the supposed unconstitutionality of the Air Force as an argument against originalism. A quick (and by no means comprehensive) Westlaw search reveals several examples. The use of the Air Force as […]