The question of the relation between wrongful discrimination and the freedom of conscience and re... more The question of the relation between wrongful discrimination and the freedom of conscience and religion has been the subject of many debates over the past decade and has occupied both courts and the public. The most well-known legal case in that regard is likely Masterpiece Cakeshop, in which a Colorado bakery owner refused to bake a wedding cake for a homosexual couple and was sued for violating the State’s Anti-Discrimination law. Recently, the Supreme Court of the U.S has agreed to hear yet another Colorado case, 303 Creative llc v. Elenis, in which a website designer wanted to post a message saying she will not design websites for same-sex weddings. The purpose of our article is to point to a significant distinction between a refusal to serve clients on the basis of their race, gender, sexual orientation, etc., and a refusal to serve them because such service requires the providers to engage in activities or projects to which they deeply oppose. We think the latter case, sometim...
This chapter assesses theory and evidence on the efficacy of medical malpractice liability and li... more This chapter assesses theory and evidence on the efficacy of medical malpractice liability and limitations to it in improving healthcare outcomes, and identifies unresolved issues that merit further attention from scholars. First, it explores the theoretical and legal background on medical malpractice. It then turns to the available evidence by focusing on three basic areas of study: the impact of malpractice limitations on payouts and litigation, the effect of malpractice limitations on overall healthcare costs, and the effect of malpractice on two major cost drivers in the healthcare system: cardiac and obstetrics practice. It argues that limitations on liability did not and likely cannot significantly reduce healthcare costs. Finally, the chapter discusses new and important trends in the literature regarding reforms to standards of care and the role of clinical practice guidelines and communication and disclosure programs.
Injunctions have often been viewed as mere "off switches" that prevent future violation... more Injunctions have often been viewed as mere "off switches" that prevent future violations of rights protected by so-called property rules. But injunctions in fact come in a variety of forms having different objects, scopes, and degrees of effectiveness. In practical situations, an injunction might amount to little more than a threat of higher-than-normal monetary sanctions delivered at sub-stantially higher-than-normal speed. This Article builds on these insights by investigating the potential and actual scopes of injunctions against patent infringement. An economic model for infringer incentives shows how concerns of injunction scope are substantially analogous to widely examined concerns of patent scope. A new taxonomy provides named classifications for different forms of injunctions. A systematic study of patent-infringement injunctions issued by U.S. district courts in 2010 indicates how often these different forms appear in practice. Startlingly, this study suggests th...
Tragedy of the human commons is a special case of tragedy of the commons in which the common reso... more Tragedy of the human commons is a special case of tragedy of the commons in which the common resource is composed of human beings. Because humans, unlike trees or fish, behave strategically and because the welfare of humans, unlike that of trees or fish, matters for its own sake, tragedy of the human commons presents different problems and can be solved in different ways. In this Article, we explore - and solve - one important example of tragedy of the human commons: health insurers' failure to make long-term investments in improving the health of their common resource, the pool of insureds who switch among health insurers. We make three major contributions in this Article. First, we describe the unique characteristics of the tragedy of the human commons. We show that this distinction both complicates analysis of commons problems and makes available a variety of solutions unavailable in regular commons. Second, we develop a rich theoretical framework of possible solutions to the...
תקציר בעברית: מאמר זה נכתב לקראת הדיון הנוסף בעניין זליגמן אשר עלול להוות נקודת תפנית בבחינת פרשנ... more תקציר בעברית: מאמר זה נכתב לקראת הדיון הנוסף בעניין זליגמן אשר עלול להוות נקודת תפנית בבחינת פרשנות הרשות המינהלית, בנסותו לכאורה לייבא את הגישה האמריקאית המעניקה מתחם של כבוד (deference) לרשות בפרשנותה. אף שפסק הדין התיימר לשנות את המצב הקיים רק ביחס לפרשנות הרשות להנחיותיה, קיים חשש כי הוא עלול להוות שלב נוסף בהליך ריסונו של בית המשפט בדרך של מתן בכורה פרשנית לרשות המינהלית בפרשנות חקיקה ראשית ומשנית גם כן. אך ההחלקה במדרון של מימד זה- אותו אני מכנה המימד הנורמטיבי - אינה הבעיה היחידה בו. הסכנה היא גם מהחלקה במדרונות של שלושה מימדים נוספים אותם אני מכנה: המימד ההירארכי, המימד המהותי ומימד היסודיות. בעיקר החשש הוא במימד המהותי שתינתן בכורה פרשנית לרשות שאינה מומחית גם בנושאים הקשורים בסדרי שלטון ומשפט וזכויות אדם. באמצעות מקרה בוחן של פרשנות פרק חוזה ביטוח בחוק שוויון זכויות לאנשים עם מוגבלות אני מראה כי למעבר ל"מתחם של כבוד" עלולות להיות השלכות הרות גורל ואין מדובר במעבר אקספרסיבי בלבד. באותו המקרה פרשנותה של רשות שוק ההון, הביטוח והחיסכון (רשות אשר אינה מתמחה בהגנה על ז...
Israel journal of health policy research, Jan 14, 2018
Nissanholtz-Gannot and Yenkellevich (NGY) explore the impact of a 2010 amendment to the Israeli N... more Nissanholtz-Gannot and Yenkellevich (NGY) explore the impact of a 2010 amendment to the Israeli National Health Insurance Law that requires annual reporting of payments from pharmaceutical companies (PCs) to doctors and healthcare organizations. The amendment was adopted to ensure transparency and to facilitate appropriate regulation of interest conflicts. To learn whether the amendment was having the desired effects, NGY interviewed multiple representatives of an assortment of stakeholders. They found broad agreement among the respondents that financial relationships between PCs and physicians should be transparent. But they also discovered that ignorance of the 2010 amendment was widespread, especially among physicians, and that knowledgeable respondents thought loopholes rendered the law ineffective. Lastly, NGY found that the improvement in the transparency culture has more to do with pressure put by international and non-Israeli national actors on the multi-national PCs operati...
In “Getting Incentives Right,” Bob Cooter & Ariel Porat argue that tort law, contract law, an... more In “Getting Incentives Right,” Bob Cooter & Ariel Porat argue that tort law, contract law, and even the law of restitution can be improved by paying better attention to parties’ incentives. If we fine-tune the incentives that private law provides, then actors will behave in a more optimal way, which will, in turn, increase total social welfare. In making this claim, Cooter & Porat represent the main stream in an important movement — the law and economics movement. The movement’s tradition of optimism about the ability of the law, and particularly private law, to produce better behavior is what guides Cooter & Portat’s work in “Getting Incentives Right.”Standing on the shoulders of giants, Cooter & Porat’s wonderful book continues this tradition by further fine-tuning private law so that it provides even better incentives for actors to engage in optimal behavior than those previously prescribed by scholars.Because their commitment is to the theoretical ideal of making the world better, Cooter & Porat have no problem — in fact they take pride in — crashing traditional legal structures that have been in use for centuries. As a result, their prescriptions are not always acceptable to courts. Indeed, the belief in the ability to better fine-tune actors’ incentives is the strength of the book, but also, as I show inside, its weakness. This is because the book places a high level of demands on courts and relevant actors. Yet, these demands are perhaps too high to meet.
... the public and policymakers will get the impres-sion that frivolous lawsuits are not a concer... more ... the public and policymakers will get the impres-sion that frivolous lawsuits are not a concern, contrary to what most doctors feel. Edward J. Volpintesta, MD Fairfield County Medical Association Bethel, CT 06801 evolpintesta@snet.net Studdert DM, Mello MM, Gawande AA, et al ...
The question of the relation between wrongful discrimination and the freedom of conscience and re... more The question of the relation between wrongful discrimination and the freedom of conscience and religion has been the subject of many debates over the past decade and has occupied both courts and the public. The most well-known legal case in that regard is likely Masterpiece Cakeshop, in which a Colorado bakery owner refused to bake a wedding cake for a homosexual couple and was sued for violating the State’s Anti-Discrimination law. Recently, the Supreme Court of the U.S has agreed to hear yet another Colorado case, 303 Creative llc v. Elenis, in which a website designer wanted to post a message saying she will not design websites for same-sex weddings. The purpose of our article is to point to a significant distinction between a refusal to serve clients on the basis of their race, gender, sexual orientation, etc., and a refusal to serve them because such service requires the providers to engage in activities or projects to which they deeply oppose. We think the latter case, sometim...
This chapter assesses theory and evidence on the efficacy of medical malpractice liability and li... more This chapter assesses theory and evidence on the efficacy of medical malpractice liability and limitations to it in improving healthcare outcomes, and identifies unresolved issues that merit further attention from scholars. First, it explores the theoretical and legal background on medical malpractice. It then turns to the available evidence by focusing on three basic areas of study: the impact of malpractice limitations on payouts and litigation, the effect of malpractice limitations on overall healthcare costs, and the effect of malpractice on two major cost drivers in the healthcare system: cardiac and obstetrics practice. It argues that limitations on liability did not and likely cannot significantly reduce healthcare costs. Finally, the chapter discusses new and important trends in the literature regarding reforms to standards of care and the role of clinical practice guidelines and communication and disclosure programs.
Injunctions have often been viewed as mere "off switches" that prevent future violation... more Injunctions have often been viewed as mere "off switches" that prevent future violations of rights protected by so-called property rules. But injunctions in fact come in a variety of forms having different objects, scopes, and degrees of effectiveness. In practical situations, an injunction might amount to little more than a threat of higher-than-normal monetary sanctions delivered at sub-stantially higher-than-normal speed. This Article builds on these insights by investigating the potential and actual scopes of injunctions against patent infringement. An economic model for infringer incentives shows how concerns of injunction scope are substantially analogous to widely examined concerns of patent scope. A new taxonomy provides named classifications for different forms of injunctions. A systematic study of patent-infringement injunctions issued by U.S. district courts in 2010 indicates how often these different forms appear in practice. Startlingly, this study suggests th...
Tragedy of the human commons is a special case of tragedy of the commons in which the common reso... more Tragedy of the human commons is a special case of tragedy of the commons in which the common resource is composed of human beings. Because humans, unlike trees or fish, behave strategically and because the welfare of humans, unlike that of trees or fish, matters for its own sake, tragedy of the human commons presents different problems and can be solved in different ways. In this Article, we explore - and solve - one important example of tragedy of the human commons: health insurers' failure to make long-term investments in improving the health of their common resource, the pool of insureds who switch among health insurers. We make three major contributions in this Article. First, we describe the unique characteristics of the tragedy of the human commons. We show that this distinction both complicates analysis of commons problems and makes available a variety of solutions unavailable in regular commons. Second, we develop a rich theoretical framework of possible solutions to the...
תקציר בעברית: מאמר זה נכתב לקראת הדיון הנוסף בעניין זליגמן אשר עלול להוות נקודת תפנית בבחינת פרשנ... more תקציר בעברית: מאמר זה נכתב לקראת הדיון הנוסף בעניין זליגמן אשר עלול להוות נקודת תפנית בבחינת פרשנות הרשות המינהלית, בנסותו לכאורה לייבא את הגישה האמריקאית המעניקה מתחם של כבוד (deference) לרשות בפרשנותה. אף שפסק הדין התיימר לשנות את המצב הקיים רק ביחס לפרשנות הרשות להנחיותיה, קיים חשש כי הוא עלול להוות שלב נוסף בהליך ריסונו של בית המשפט בדרך של מתן בכורה פרשנית לרשות המינהלית בפרשנות חקיקה ראשית ומשנית גם כן. אך ההחלקה במדרון של מימד זה- אותו אני מכנה המימד הנורמטיבי - אינה הבעיה היחידה בו. הסכנה היא גם מהחלקה במדרונות של שלושה מימדים נוספים אותם אני מכנה: המימד ההירארכי, המימד המהותי ומימד היסודיות. בעיקר החשש הוא במימד המהותי שתינתן בכורה פרשנית לרשות שאינה מומחית גם בנושאים הקשורים בסדרי שלטון ומשפט וזכויות אדם. באמצעות מקרה בוחן של פרשנות פרק חוזה ביטוח בחוק שוויון זכויות לאנשים עם מוגבלות אני מראה כי למעבר ל"מתחם של כבוד" עלולות להיות השלכות הרות גורל ואין מדובר במעבר אקספרסיבי בלבד. באותו המקרה פרשנותה של רשות שוק ההון, הביטוח והחיסכון (רשות אשר אינה מתמחה בהגנה על ז...
Israel journal of health policy research, Jan 14, 2018
Nissanholtz-Gannot and Yenkellevich (NGY) explore the impact of a 2010 amendment to the Israeli N... more Nissanholtz-Gannot and Yenkellevich (NGY) explore the impact of a 2010 amendment to the Israeli National Health Insurance Law that requires annual reporting of payments from pharmaceutical companies (PCs) to doctors and healthcare organizations. The amendment was adopted to ensure transparency and to facilitate appropriate regulation of interest conflicts. To learn whether the amendment was having the desired effects, NGY interviewed multiple representatives of an assortment of stakeholders. They found broad agreement among the respondents that financial relationships between PCs and physicians should be transparent. But they also discovered that ignorance of the 2010 amendment was widespread, especially among physicians, and that knowledgeable respondents thought loopholes rendered the law ineffective. Lastly, NGY found that the improvement in the transparency culture has more to do with pressure put by international and non-Israeli national actors on the multi-national PCs operati...
In “Getting Incentives Right,” Bob Cooter & Ariel Porat argue that tort law, contract law, an... more In “Getting Incentives Right,” Bob Cooter & Ariel Porat argue that tort law, contract law, and even the law of restitution can be improved by paying better attention to parties’ incentives. If we fine-tune the incentives that private law provides, then actors will behave in a more optimal way, which will, in turn, increase total social welfare. In making this claim, Cooter & Porat represent the main stream in an important movement — the law and economics movement. The movement’s tradition of optimism about the ability of the law, and particularly private law, to produce better behavior is what guides Cooter & Portat’s work in “Getting Incentives Right.”Standing on the shoulders of giants, Cooter & Porat’s wonderful book continues this tradition by further fine-tuning private law so that it provides even better incentives for actors to engage in optimal behavior than those previously prescribed by scholars.Because their commitment is to the theoretical ideal of making the world better, Cooter & Porat have no problem — in fact they take pride in — crashing traditional legal structures that have been in use for centuries. As a result, their prescriptions are not always acceptable to courts. Indeed, the belief in the ability to better fine-tune actors’ incentives is the strength of the book, but also, as I show inside, its weakness. This is because the book places a high level of demands on courts and relevant actors. Yet, these demands are perhaps too high to meet.
... the public and policymakers will get the impres-sion that frivolous lawsuits are not a concer... more ... the public and policymakers will get the impres-sion that frivolous lawsuits are not a concern, contrary to what most doctors feel. Edward J. Volpintesta, MD Fairfield County Medical Association Bethel, CT 06801 evolpintesta@snet.net Studdert DM, Mello MM, Gawande AA, et al ...
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