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Legal Change and the Social Value of Lawsuits

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Author Info
Thomas J. Miceli (University of Connecticut)

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Abstract

This paper integrates the literatures on the social value of lawsuits, the evolution of the law, and judicial preferences to evaluate the hypothesis that the law evolves toward efficiency. The setting is a simple accident model with costly litigation where the efficient law minimizes the sum of accident plus litigation costs. In the steady state equilibrium, the distribution of legal rules is not necessarily efficient but instead depends on a combination of selective litigation, judicial bias, and precedent.

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File URL: http://www.econ.uconn.edu/working/2008-34.pdf
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by University of Connecticut, Department of Economics in its series Working papers with number 2008-34.

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Date of creation: Sep 2008
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Handle: RePEc:uct:uconnp:2008-34

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Web page: http://www.econ.uconn.edu/
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Related research
Keywords: Efficiency of the law; judicial decision making; legal change; precedent; value of lawsuits;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
K40 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - General
K41 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Litigation Process

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Landes, William M, 1971. "An Economic Analysis of the Courts," Journal of Law & Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(1), pages 61-107, April.
  2. Shavell, Steven, 1997. "The Fundamental Divergence between the Private and the Social Motive to Use the Legal System," Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(2), pages 575-612, June.
  3. Lucian Arye Bebchuk, 1984. "Litigation and Settlement under Imperfect Information," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(3), pages 404-415, Autumn. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Miceli, Thomas J. & Cosgel, Metin M., 1994. "Reputation and judicial decision-making," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 31-51, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Nicola Gennaioli & Andrei Shleifer, 2007. "The Evolution of Common Law," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115, pages 43-68. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Cohen, Mark A, 1991. "Explaining Judicial Behavior or What's "Unconstitutional" about the Sentencing Commission?," Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(1), pages 183-99, Spring.
  7. Thomas J. Miceli, 2009. "Legal Change: Selective Litigation, Judicial Bias, and Precedent," Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(1), pages 157-168, 01. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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This page was last updated on 2009-10-28.

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