The University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog

Has Law & Literature Worked?

When I was a student here at Chicago, I took a fabulous class called "Law & Literature" from Professor Nussbaum. We read books like "Native Son" and "Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir" with the goal of increasing our empathy. The conceit of the Law & Literature movement, if we can call it that, is that if judges (some of us would eventually be one or otherwise be in policy setting positions) read fiction, they will reach better results because they will more fully understand the human condition. Relying heavily on Aristotle, Professor Nussbaum offered literature (what might happen) as a strong rival to history (what has happened) and economics.

So has Law & Literature had an impact on judges? We can't know for sure, but if it has we might expect citations to literature to show up in judicial opinions, especially in the empathy-evoking form favored by its proponents. In a piece in the current issue of the Green Bag, I survey federal appellate opinions for evidence of impact. (Preview: there is virtually none.) I also identify the most commonly cited authors, the judges most likely to cite to fiction, and the places in which literary citations are most likely to occur, as well as explore what this tells us about judicial opinions and the act of judging.

You can find the paper here:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1113511

"Corporate Philanthropy and the Market for Altruism"

Todd Henderson and Anup Malani recently posted their paper "Corporate Philanthropy and the Market for Altruism" to SSRN. The abstract is below, and the paper can be downloaded here. You can also listen to Prof. Malani's discuss corporate philanthropy at a CBI earlier this year.

The existing literature on corporate philanthropy asks why corporations engage in philanthropy. But corporations are not alone in doing good works. Non-profit charities and the government also lend a hand. Together the three sectors compete in a larger market for good deeds where individuals seek to satisfy their desire to help others.

The existing literature on public goods ignores the role for-profit firms play in this market, which we call the market for altruism. Once the demand and supply for altruism is understood, asking why firms are philanthropic becomes about as meaningful as asking why Ford produces the Explorer or Apple produces the iPod Nano. Instead the question becomes how is this market different from other markets, and when are for-profit corporations best suited to supplying it. The market for altruism is special because one of the competitors - the government - also regulates competition in the remainder of the market. After analyzing the market for altruism, and explaining the comparative advantages of corporations, this paper highlights one area - tax policy - in which the government discriminates among competitors. We argue that this discrimination is not justified and propose a number of tax reforms to level the playing field and improve the efficiency of the market for altruism.

 

Audio: Richard Epstein on How the Progressives Rewrote the Constitution

On February 22nd, Richard Epstein appeared on the radio show "The Logic Consortium," broadcast on WRFU in Urbana. Prof. Epstein discussed his 2006 book, How the Progressives Rewrote the Constitution with hosts (and University of Illinois law students) Matthew Stone, Jacob Briskman and Phil Wagenknecht. You can listen to a recording of the interview here.

Podcast: Eric Posner and Cass Sunstein on "Climate Change Justice"

Greenhouse gas reductions would cost some nations much more than others, and benefit some nations far less than others. Significant reductions would impose especially large costs on the United States, and recent projections suggest that the U.S. has relatively less to lose from climate change. In these circumstances, what does justice require the U.S. to do?

This is the question that the University of Chicago Environmental Law Society and International Law Society invited professors Cass Sunstein and Eric Posner to discuss during a lunchtime talk yesterday. You can listen to their talk here.