A Dynamic Theory of Common Law Courts

We develop a model that determines when and how time-consistent and forward-looking courts should set and reform legal rules (a normative theory for dynamically efficient courts). We explicitly take into account that: 1) the optimal rules most likely are not the same for all periods of time; 2) courts can only rule at trials; 3) the enforcement strategies of courts determine the litigation strategies of present and future parties in conflict; and 4) the parties in conflict can contract around the rules. As main results, we show that: 1) courts should set those rules that maximize the value of the present parties in conflict (statically efficient rules) only under extreme circumstances; 2) if legal rules are the only control variables, courts should adjust the unconstrained first-best rules for society in order to give the parties incentives to partially correct an inefficient frequency of litigation; 3) there always exists a distribution of the litigation expenses between the parties that generates an optimal frequency of trials in which case courts don't need to bias the rules. The model allows us to analyze the social desirability of two commonly suggested strategies to increase the frequency of shareholders' litigation: adding ambiguity to the law or involving public prosecutors as the N.Y.A.G.'s office or agencies as the S.E.C. In addition, the model also allows us to discuss when courts should set contingent rules (rules that adapt to the states of nature) instead of rigid rules (rules that don't adapt to the states of nature).Efficiency of the law, myopic courts, forward-looking courts, optimal enforcement strategies, optimal frequency of trials, rigid and contingent rules

Strategic Judicial Preference Revelation

We examine the revelation of preferences of justices whose true ideologies are not known at the moment of entering the Court but gradually become apparent through their judicial decisions. In the context of a two-period President-Senate-Court game — a generalization of Moraski and Shipan (1999) — we show that, while moderate new justices always vote truthfully, more extreme new justices may vote untruthfully at the beginning of their tenures. By concealing their true ideologies, new justices move the perceived ideology of the overall Court closer to their own, which in turn influences the selection of future members of the Court. New justices will sometimes have an incentive to exaggerate the extremeness of their overall preferences, and at other times they will seek to appear more moderate. The manifestation of the untruthful voting will depend on the characteristics of the cases they face, their initial ideologies and the ideologies of the President and Senate. Additionally, untruthful voting is more likely when the probabilities of retirement of the current justices are large. Finally, we assess judicial incentives to shape their perceived retirement probabilities.Court, judicial preferences, evolution preferences, truthful vote

The Unexpected Effects of Caps on Non-Economic Damages

We study the economic and legal implications of the enactment of caps on noneconomic damages on parties in conflict who know that state supreme courts may strike down the caps as unconstitutional within a few years of enactment. We develop a simple screening model where parties have symmetric expectations regarding the probability of a strike down and asymmetric information regarding plaintiff’s non-economic harm. Our model makes several surprising predictions: First, caps may increase the length of resolution of disputes if the caps are low enough or the probability of a strike down is large enough. Second, although caps always increase the percentage of disputes that are settled out of courts, they do not necessarily save litigation expenses. Third, while caps always reduce the recoveries of plaintiffs with large claims, caps may increase recoveries of plaintiffs with low claims compared to their recoveries in states with no caps. We conclude that to increase welfare legislators have to tailor caps to the economic and constitutional circumstances in their state in ways which we characterize in the paper.Tort reform, caps on recoveries, length of dispute resolution

El Romance de la sacratísima magdalena de Ambrosio Montesino escritura, reescritura y censura

Resum disponible en anglès i castellàAmbrosio Montesino (ca. 1450-1514), franciscano cercano a Cisneros y a los Reyes Católicos, incluyó su Romance de María Magdalena en las dos ediciones de su Cancionero religioso (Toledo, Juan Vázquez, ca. 1485 y Toledo, sucesor de Pedro Hagembach, 1508). Se vincula a este poeta con las cortes toledanas de su tiempo, en particular con su audiencia femenina; se estudia el romance, su evolución en los dos estadios y las tradiciones literarias que se perciben en la figura de la María Magdalena descrita por Montesino: pecadora, seguidora singular de Cristo, predicadora y penitente, constituye un personaje literario y un modelo de santidad que debió de resultar atractivo para los entornos laicos y religiosos de su tiempo.Ambrosio Montesino (ca. 1450-1514), Franciscan poet close to Cisneros and to the Catholic Kings, edited twice his Romance de María Magdalena (Toledo, ca. 1485, and Toledo, 1508). His links poet with the Toledo’s courts, especially those integrated by aristocratic and devoted women, are hereby explored. The article focuses on the evolution of the text and the literary traditions perceived in Montesino’s portrayal of Mary Magdalene: sinful, follower of Christ, preacher and penitent, she is a singular character but also a relevant model of holiness for the lay and religious readers

"Llora sangre mi papel": agudeza y retórica en las coplas de amores de Juan del Encina

[Resumo] As coplas de tema amatorio constituen unha importante sección do Cancioneiro que Juan del Encina levou ao prelo de Salamanca en 1496. Neste conxunto de trinta composicións Encina amosa a súa habilidade no manexo dos recursos de agudeza proprios da retórica cancioneiril: os tropos de annominatio, as figuras de posición e repetición, os recursos á perspicuitas e á obscuritas, etc. Neste traballo trázase un percorrido sistemático por este tipo de recursos presentes nas coplas de amores de Encina, un conxunto de textos que o sitúa entre os grandes poetas de cancioneiro no fío do cincocentos.[Resumen] Las coplas de tema amatorio constituyen una importante sección del Cancionero que Juan del Encina llevó a la imprenta de Salamanca en 1496. En este conjunto de treinta composiciones Encina demuestra su habilidad en el manejo de los recursos de agudeza propios de la retórica cancioneril: los tropos de annominatio, las figuras de posición y repetición, los recursos a la perspicuitas y la obscuritas, etc. En este trabajo se traza un recorrido sistemático por este tipo de recursos presentes en las coplas de amores de Encina, un conjunto de textos que lo sitúa entre los grandes poetas de cancionero en el filo del quinientos.[Abstract] The amatorian coplas form an important section of the Cancionero that Juan del Encina brought to the press of Salamanca in 1496. In this group of thirty poems Encina shows his hability by using the resources of agudeza of the cancionero’s rethoric: the annominatio figures, position and repetition, perspicuitas and obscuritas, etc. This article makes a systematic review of this kind of resources in the Encina’s amatorian coplas, a group of texts that makes him one of the greatest cancionero’s poet at the end of fifteenth century

Francisco de Terrazas, poeta toscano, latino y castellano

Francisco de Terrazas is considered the first petrarquist poet of New Spain. The early date of his death (1580) did not impede a madure assimilation of the petrarquist imagery, through the so-called seville school. These pages suggest Terrazas relationship with the neolatin poetry of the Licenciado Francisco Pacheco as well as with the amorous poetry of Juan de la Cueva, whom he could have known in New Spain

Incremento del IVA a telefonía móvil

El pasado primero de marzo de 2012, el presidente de la Asociación de la Industria Móvil de Colombia Asomóvil, Rodrigo Lara Restrepo, explicó que las empresas que prestan servicios de telefonía móvil en Colombia, permanecen a la espera de la publicación de la sentencia por parte de la Corte Constitucional, la cual reduciría 4 puntos del IVA al servicio de telefonía celular y pasaría del 20% a la tarifa general. Este impuesto había sido incrementado Mediante la Ley No. 788 del 27 de diciembre de 2002, la cual expide normas en materia tributaria y penal del orden nacional y territorial, en su artículo No. 35, parágrafo 2, la cual se incluye un aumento en el impuesto al valor agregado aplicado a la telefonía celular, la cual pasa del 16% al 20% y comienza a regir a partir del 1º de enero de 2003.Pregrad

Judicial Choice among Cases for Certiorari

How does the Supreme Court choose among cases to grant cert? In a model with a strategic Supreme Court, a continuum of rule-following lower courts, a set of potential cases for revision, and a distribution of future lower court cases, we show that the Court takes the case that will most significantly shape future lower court case outcomes in the direction that the Court prefers. That is, the Court grants cert to the case with maximum salience. If the Court is rather liberal (or conservative), then the most salient case is that which moves the discretionary range of the legal standard as far left (or right) as possible. But if the Court is moderate, then the most salient case will be a function of the skewedness of the distribution of ideologies of the lower courts and the likelihood that future cases will fall within the adjusted discretionary range. The extent of the political alignment of lower courts affects not only substantive lawmaking by the Supreme Court but also the earlier decision of whether to grant a given case cert to begin with