Who Actually Benefits from Changes in Legal Standards? Evidence from Water Disputes in 19th Century California?

Abstract

This paper attempts to answer a fundamental question about the effect of a change in a legal standard on the parties to a dispute: How do we know who is benefited by a change in a legal standard? The answer to this question may seem obvious, particularly if you state it concretely: Who will benefit from a change in a legal standard that is more likely to find drivers at fault in automobile-pedestrian collisions? 1 Surely the answer is pedestrians. Stated more generally, how do we know that a rule change that seems to benefit a class of parties to a dispute actually does