Loose Ends Revisited, and Next Steps

Some 8 months ago I noted the status of a few "loose ends;" I thought I would take this opportunity to update those, and to indicate some plans for the next, uh, 8 months or so.

The loose ends, and the updates:

(1) reading a book on prostitution policy and writing a review of it; this is complete and the review should appear forthwith;
(2) revising markedly a second kidney compensation paper; this is complete.
(3) writing a paper on the Parthenon Marbles at the British Museum; this is complete, and
(4) preparing a paper on vice policy for a conference in Russia; this is complete. A Russian language version of the paper should soon be available(!).

The next few weeks involve revising the Parthenon Marbles paper; I hope to post updates on Five Drafts. In this same time period I have to write a referee report for a paper concerning addiction --  I only mention it here as a personal reminder and spur to action. I also intend, over the next few months, to write another Russia-related vice paper, this time covering alcohol, tobacco, and gambling. There will probably also be a second paper (topic yet unknown) to employ some of my time in these next 8 months, and there are rumblings of the next book. When the book project materializes, I will post more here; the other projects are likely to be discussed or lamented on Five Drafts.

Oh my goodness, I almost forgot -- in the next few weeks, I hope to produce a short paper on regulating cocaine. 

I am always game for trying to commit to reading a book or two, too; right now, let me make that commitment to The Parthenon Enigma, by Joan Breton Connelly -- I already am well into it, so I am feeling confident. 

The Law and Econ Project, Culmination [Updated, July 16, 2015]

Concepts in Law and Economics: A Guide for the Curious will be out soon, oh but it will, through the good offices of Oxford University Press. Please celebrate by buying (OK, pre-ordering) multiple copies. If you are impatient -- and why shouldn't you be? -- the e-book already is available.

Loose Ends

In the most recent post I mentioned a few other tasks beyond the ongoing Law and Economics book project. They involved...

(1) reading a book on prostitution policy and writing a review of it;
(2) revising markedly a second kidney compensation paper (paper one is now out, available here); 
(3) writing a paper on the Parthenon Marbles at the British Museum; and, 
(4) preparing a paper on vice policy for a conference in Russia.

Here is where progress stands...
(1) the book has been read, extensive notes taken, and a draft review has been fashioned but not polished; this project is now behind schedule, and I want to complete it soon;
(2) the revisions are complete and the kidney paper, for the time being, is in the able hands of my co-author;
(3) the Parthenon Marbles paper is essentially unstarted, but is now a top priority, with a schedule, and everything; and,
(4) the vice policy paper -- "Robust Alcohol Policy in Russia: Some Aspirational Measures" -- is complete, and can be downloaded at zero nominal charge here.

Law and Econ Project, Update XIV

The "final" version of the L and E book went in to the publisher on October 5, a few days beyond the October 1 deadline. I then proceeded to drag my feet on various ancillary matters, but sent a further slightly revised version (responding to some editorial suggestions) on December 1. More foot dragging on my end with respect to design decisions (footnotes or endnotes? font and layout? cover art? acknowledgements?), but those have been handled and I believe the ball is in the publisher's court for the time being. I agreed to prepare the index myself, so when the proofs are ready I will have to take that on. My experience in this department is that the process of preparing an index is deadly dull -- but, for what it is worth, the index itself is probably better than using an outside contractor, and second, preparing it forces you to go over the text carefully one more time, a couple months after you last have looked at it, and that sometimes leads to improvements.

In the next few months I have to read a book on prostitution policy and write a review of it; revise markedly a second kidney compensation paper (paper one is now out, available here); write a paper on the Parthenon Marbles at the British Museum; and, prepare a paper on vice policy for a conference in Russia. I will probably attempt to progress on some of the activities while using the companion blog to this one...  UPDATE: OK, I have decided to use Five Drafts only for the Russian vice policy paper and for the revisions to kidney paper 2. That leaves nDrafts as the place to report on the book review and the Parthenon Marbles.

Law and Econ Project, Update XIII

Well, in at least one dimension, the recent plan has been fulfilled: I made it all the way through the nutshell series book on Law and Economics. Enjoyed it, too. The seemingly more pressing matter of completing my own book also has been accomplished, more or less, though not according to the detailed plan. Nonetheless, everything (except the Acknowledgements) is about ready to go. There will be some frantic last minute revising over the next week or two -- so I won't adopt any deadlines for reading -- but the final version should look pretty much like the current one. Not sure whether that is good or bad news.

I'll append the Table of Contents.  When I compare it with the version from 2.5 years ago, well, yes, changes (I hope improvements) have been made, but the similarities seem to dominate the differences. (Chapters 3, 4, and 5, largely are intact -- I wonder how much those intact sections themselves have been revised?) Hmmm. For my own edification, I'll put asterisks next to new or perhaps massively altered sections.

Concepts in Law and Economics: A Guide for the Curious

Jim Leitzel

Table of Contents

 

Introduction

             The Original of Laura

            Choice in the Shadow of the Law

 

Chapter 1: E pluribus unum

             Robin

            Efficiency

                        Jeremy Bentham

            The Art of the Deal

            Willingness-to-pay

            Why Maximize Aggregate Wellbeing?

                        *Just Compensation

            Common Law and Civil Law

            The Coase Theorem

            Establishing a Market to Erode Rent Controls

            The Coase Corollary

            More on Property Rights and Efficiency: The Tragedy of the Commons

            The Reverse of the Medal: Property Rights and the Anticommons

                        *An Aside on View Blocking

            *What Happens When a Property Right is Infringed?

 Chapter 2: Efficiency pluribus unum

 *The Sixty Minute Law School

*Property, Mostly a Reprise

            *Who Owns Meteorites?

            Contracts

            Expectation Damages and Efficient Breach

                        Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., on Bad Men and the Law

            Accidents

            Strict Liability

            Negligence

            Crime

            *Purposes of Punishing Crime

Efficiency When?

            *Retribution?

Standards of Proof

 Chapter 3: What’s done is done?

             Bart and Lance

            Chicago Dibs

            Patents

                        Advance Market Commitments

            Preventive and Punitory Measures

            Firearm Regulation

                        John Stuart Mill

            Low Probability, High Punishment Regimes

            Destruction of Property: What’s Done Cannot Be Undone?

            Moral Rights: What’s Done Cannot Be Redone?

                        *Defacing or Improving?

            Intellectual Property: What’s Done Can Be Done Repeatedly

                        Public Goods

            Nabokov and Existence Value

 Chapter 4: Squeezing a balloon

             The Peltzman Effect

                        *Endangered Species

            Art Again: Resale Rights, or Droit de Suite

Using the Law to Serve Distributional Goals

            Squeezing Copyright

                        Creative Commons and Open Access

            The De Facto Liberalization of the Copyright Regime

            A World Without Copyright

Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails

            Copyright Vacuums

                        Fashion Design

                        Comedy

            Squeezing Newspapers

                        Hyperlocal News

            Deflating Subsidies

 Chapter 5: Deorum injuriae Diis curae

             Low-cost Avoider or Insurer

            Products Liability

            Comparative Negligence

                        Foreseeable Misuse and Attractive Nuisance

            Mill and the Harm Principle

                        Pecuniary Externalities

            Blocked Exchanges

            Kidney Markets

                        The Iranian Kidney Transplant Program

            The Parthenon Marbles and Cultural Property

                        Statutes of Limitation and Adverse Possession

 

Chapter 6: Crooked timber

             Enforcing Contracts

                        Lochner v. New York (1905)

            Dealing with Uncertainty

            Unconscionability

            *Willpower Lapses

            The Endowment Effect

            Default Rules

            Organ Donations, Reprise

            *Selling Kidneys

            Vice, Rationality, and Defaults

            *Re-legalizing Drugs

                        *An Option to Commit to Opting Out: Self-Exclusion

            *Preventive and Punitory Measures, Again

            *A Happy Ending?

*Conclusions

References

*Glossary

Law and Econ Project, Update XII

The schedule for revisions to the Law and Econ manuscript now looks like this. (I have to intersperse them with my work on a new kidney paper.) By the end of July, I want to have new versions of each of the Chapters. I am working on Chapter Two now. (This is a different Chapter Two from two years ago, as the end bits of Chapter One were siphoned off to form the basis of the new Chapter Two. So now there are six chapters.) I also want to complete the Glossary, which I currently am only about one-third of the way through. I want to print the end of July version, and then, by August 15, have produced a new complete draft. Finally, at the end of August, a third version should appear, one that I hope to submit to the unnamed university press publisher as the "final" version. Did I mention that the working title has evolved into Concepts in Law and Economics: A Guide for the Curious?

As for book reading related to the Law and Econ project, I have made lots of progress but not finished the nutshell series book on Law and Economics mentioned in the previous post. One book I did finish and found both helpful and fascinating is Bentham: A Guide for the Perplexed, by Philip Schofield, though the similarity of our subtitles is a coincidence. This book motivated me to visit Jeremy in person a couple weeks ago.

In early August I am slated to deliver two lectures related to the material in the book. I already am getting nervous over the prospect of preparing Power Point slides. I usually don't employ such slides, but the audience will involve some non-native English speakers, and I have found slides to be useful in similar settings in the past. But preparing the lectures might help me revise the manuscript, too, or at least I can hope.

Law and Econ Project, Update XI, and a Contract

Well, here's some news: unnamed university press would like to publish the Law and Econ tome. And as I would like them to publish it, we have a meeting of the minds, and a signed contract. My goal is to send the "final" version, one I am happy with, on September 1, 2014 -- no snickering from those who recall some past (passed) deadlines. Lots of revisions to go, and as I mentioned before, I will start with the suggestions of the four reviewers. As I am looking over the current version, I see some holes that require completely new material, and that always takes some time. So I have a hard time laying out a schedule of revisions. But first I will go through the manuscript, without referencing the review comments (though even I remember some of them). Then I will start making the changes that I have identified, in concert with trying to address the reviewers' concerns. I have already looked over about 40% of the manuscript, and I hope to complete this first step, the remaining 60%, this week, let's say, by Saturday, April 19. Then, just two weeks or so later, on Sunday, May 4, I would like to have a new draft, with reviewer comments accounted for, in hand.Oh, here's a thought, I will have that version bound, to ease the next round of reading and revising.

In committing to reading, hmmm, well, I have never read the nutshell series book on Law and Economics, though I have started it. Now seems like a good time to take that on!