Reference no: EM132191839
Chapter 6 Questions
1. Orchard owners often allow beekeepers on their land because the bees pollinate the blossoms on the fruit trees, while the nectar from the flowers allows the bees to produce honey. Sometimes beekeepers pay land rent to the orchard owners, and sometimes orchard owners pay the beekeepers. Can you explain these arrangements?
2. Explain the role of patent protection in encouraging entrepreneurs to invest in new products. Are there ways besides patent protection that will give entrepreneurs incentives to invest?
3. In professional sports leagues, new players are usually allocated to teams by a draft system rather than by a free labor market (free agency). In most drafts, teams choose in reverse sequence of their place in the standings in the previous season. Are drafts an efficient way to allocate players? If not, why do you think leagues use them? How does the ability of teams to sell/trade their draft picks affect your answer?
Chapter 7 Questions
4. Suppose the owner of a boat, on seeing an impending storm blowing up, moored his boat to a dock without first obtaining the owner's permission. During the course of the storm, the boat did $500 worth of damages on the dock, but the boat was saved. The dock owner sued for damages and won. What assignment of rights and enforcement rule (property or liability) are implied by this ruling? Would it have made sense for the court instead to award the plaintiff more than the $500 in damages to deter the defendant's actions? (10 points)
5. Define an "externality" and explain why it is a social problem. Is the socially optimal level of an externality generally zero? If not, why not? How does the law deal with externalities?
6. Gino's barbeque is known for its famous spare ribs, which are cooked in an open pit. However, some neighbors complained about the smoke, and the city adopted an ordinance that made such open pits illegal. Could this ordinance be a regulatory taking? If so, what would be the measure of Gino's loss? How might the city seek to avoid paying compensation?
Chapter 8 Questions
7. What is the main difference between tort law and crime as ways of internalizing external harms? Why does it make sense that some acts are both crimes and torts?
8. The posting of rewards in the Old West created a private enforcement mechanism that assisted government agents in the apprehension of wanted outlaws. Explain how this bounty system worked as a kind of "first possession" rule. Was it an efficient system? What might have been the purpose of stating that the outlaw was wanted "dead or alive"? (Think of this provision from the perspective of both the government and the outlaw.)
Chapter 9 Questions
9. Consider a 100% contingency contract between a client and a lawyer whereby the lawyer pays the client a fixed amount up front and then the lawyer retains the full amount of whatever recovery the case yields in a settlement or trial. What are the incentive and risk-sharing aspects of this contract? Can you think of any arguments for why such an arrangement should not be allowed?
10. What does it mean to say that judges decide cases by precedent? In what ways does decision by precedent promote efficient rule-making, and in what ways does it impede it?
Bonus Questions
11. Discuss the normative question of whether or not the gains to offenders should be counted in social welfare when determining the optimal enforcement policy
12. Discuss the arguments for and against conditioning criminal fines for a given crime on the offender's wealth.
Textbook - The economic approach to law third edition by Thomas J. Miceli