Private value preturbations ad informational advantage in common value auctions

We analyze the value of being better informed than one’s rival in a two bidder, second price common value auction. In order to do so, we must pare down the continuum of equilibria that typically exists in this setting. We propose selecting an equilibrium that is robust to perturbing the common value of the object with small private value components. Under this selection, we show that having better information about the common value will frequently hurt rather than help a bidder and that the ratio of private value to common value information held by a bidder has a significant effect on the value of information

Civil Procedure as a Critical Discussion

This Article develops a model for analyzing legal dispute resolution systems as systems for argumentation. Our model meshes two theories of argument conceived centuries apart: contemporary argumentation theory and classical stasis theory. In this Article, we apply the model to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as a proof of concept. Specifically, the model analyzes how the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure function as a staged argumentative critical discussion designed to permit judge and jury to rationally resolve litigants’ differences in a reasonable manner. At a high level, this critical discussion has three phases: a confrontation, an (extended) opening, and a concluding phase. Those phases are the umbrella under which discrete argumentation phases occur at points we call stases. Whenever litigants seek a ruling or judgment, they reach a stasis—a stopping or standing point for arguing procedural points of disagreement. During these stases, the parties make arguments that fall into predictable “commonplace” argument types. Taken together, these stock argument types form a taxonomy of arguments for all civil cases. Our claim that the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure function as a system for argumentation is novel, as is our claim that civil cases breed a taxonomy of argument types. These claims also mark the beginning of a broader project. Starting here with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, we embark on a journey that we expect to follow for several years (and which we hope other scholars will join), exploring our model’s application across dispute resolution systems and using it to make normative claims about those systems. From a birds-eye view, this Article also represents a short modern trek in a much longer journey begun by advocates in city states in and near Greece nearly 2500 years ago

Jamming, two-fluid behaviour and 'self-filtration' in concentrated particulate suspensions

We study the flow of model experimental hard sphere colloidal suspensions at high volume fraction $\Phi$ driven through a constriction by a pressure gradient. Above a particle-size dependent limit $\Phi_0$, direct microscopic observations demonstrate jamming and unjamming--conversion of fluid to solid and vice versa--during flow. We show that such a jamming flow produces a reduction in colloid concentration $\Phi_{x}$ downstream of the constriction. We propose that this `self-filtration' effect is the consequence of a combination of jamming of the particulate part of the system and continuing flow of the liquid part, i.e. the solvent, through the pores of the jammed solid. Thus we link the concept of jamming in colloidal and granular media with a 'two-fluid'-like picture of the flow of concentrated suspensions. Results are also discussed in the light of Osborne Reynolds' original experiments on dilation in granular materials.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Loading of bosons in optical lattices into the p band

We present a method for transferring bosonic atoms residing on the lowest s-band of an optical lattice to the first excited p-bands. Our idea hinges on resonant tunneling between adjacent sites of accelerated lattices. The acceleration effectively shifts the quasi-bound energies on each site such that the system can be cast into a Wannier-Stark ladder problem. By adjusting the acceleration constant, a situation of resonant tunneling between the s- and p-bands is achievable. Within a mean-field model, considering 87Rb atoms, we demonstrate population transfer from the s- to the p-bands with around 95 % efficiency. Nonlinear effects deriving from atom-atom interactions, as well as coupling of the quasi bound Wannier-Stark states to the continuum, are considered.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

The appendix to the Congressional Record; an analysis of its scope and content.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston UniversityThe origins and development of the Congressional Record make up an interesting chapter in the history of government printing. The Record and its predecessors had been instituted to provide a means of preserving congressional debates; to preserve what was said in Congress,as well as what was done there. The two chambers had published their journals since 1789; but legislative journals do not contain the record of debates in a legislative body; they are rather the "minutes", or a record of proceedings, providing a history of actions taken, on legislation and other matters concerning the legislature. The Record, providing similarly a history of legislation, thus serves in addition a much broader function. [TRUNCATED

Centering Students’ Rhetorical Knowledge: The Community of Inquiry as Formative Assessment

This essay describes an approach to peer review and classroom workshopping intended to develop a community of inquiry in the first-year law school classroom, center students’ own rhetorical knowledge, and establish the authority of students—especially minoritized students—as rhetorical agents. The technique described in this essay works from the presumption that each student who comes to law school comes with rich rhetorical experience. In other words, they have extensive experience constructing discourse suited to certain audiences and certain contexts. They use a variety of tools to construct such discourse, including linguistic registers (or styles) and rhetorical genres (such as the academic paper). On one hand, it is possible that (some of) our marginalized and minoritized students are less familiar with certain formal and academic registers and genres than (some of) our nonmarginalized and nonminoritized students. On the other hand, it is likely that (many of) our minoritized students are skilled at shifting register and genre based on social context (code switching, style shifting, etc.) in ways that (many of) our nonminoritized students are not. As McMurtry-Chubb notes, “Minoritized students . . . come to law school with wisdom from their lived experiences on how to minimize the effects of their identity contingencies . . . .” The approach I recommend here fits with the community of inquiry framework. Under that model, according to writing researcher Mary K. Stewart, “in a functioning community of inquiry, teaching presence and social presence support cognitive presence. In other words, when students experience a sense of community (social presence) and when the course design and instructor feedback guides students toward collaborative learning (teaching presence), then knowledge construction can result from interaction (cognitive presence).” To meet these requirements, the professor must set the stage for a community where students offer each other supporting discourse by setting the climate in the classroom and selecting content for their discussions. This approach calls on legal writing professors to create a suitable climate: They decenter their own rhetorical authority in the classroom while retaining their professorial authority, but they emphasize students’ rhetorical authority so that they recognize it in each other. This builds a community of supporting discourse. The selection of materials—here, students\u27 own writing—is critical to making participation in the community salient to students. When properly executed (and when the stars align to provide a good teaching day) this approach can “motivate students by encouraging positive emotions, such as confidence, by stimulating their interest, and by showing them how to use their skills to change their experiences and to help others.

Review: The Dialogical Roots of Deduction: Historical, Cognitive, and Philosophical Perspectives on Reasoning

The balance of this review addresses matters in the book that should be of particular interest to readers in the legal rhetoric and communication community. First, it addresses some concepts central to Dutilh Novaes’ effort. Second, it surveys the book’s organization, identifying some key observations and conclusions that she supports with careful evidence and argumentation. Third, it addresses Dutilh Novaes’ attention to non-European and non-Western research and logical traditions. Finally, it considers some difficult and technical passages, noting those readers should work through because the payoff is worth it and others I believe readers in our field might skip