Joint doctoral workshop Bournemouth University and EUR on Organizational Behavior and Legal Development
On 24 and 25 May a joint doctoral workshop on Organizational Behavior and Legal Development is organized at Bournemouth University (UK). From Erasmus School of Law Prof. Klaus Heine, Dr. Pieter Desmet and the following PhD students will participate: Petra Gyongyi, Meltem Bayramli and Joost Leunissen (RSM).
More information can be obtained from: Klaus Heine
Published May 2012
Seminar 'Using Economics to Improve Regulation'
On 23 May 2012 a joint seminar will be organized by the Centre for Law and Economics of the Chinese University of Political Science and Law (CUPL), where the seminar will also will take place, in collaboration with the Maastricht European Institute for Transnational Legal Research (METRO) and the Rotterdam Institute for Law and Economics (RILE), both located in the Netherlands.
The goal of the seminar is to inquire insights on the way in which economic tools can be used to improve the quality of regulation in general and legislative tools more particularly. This topic is of great importance for China since the rule of law is becoming increasingly important in China as well as a result of which the question arises how regulatory and legislative tools can be developed to accompany the Chinese evolution towards a welfare state in an effective manner.
Click here for the preliminary programme
Published April 2012
Alessio Pacces appointed professor Law and Finance
This endowed chair is established in the context of the Tinbergen program. This position was created in 2008, after the board of the EUR decided to offer ten positions of this kind to different faculties in order to attract specialized talent from abroad. The first of these tenure tracks was offered to Dr. Alessio M. Pacces at the ESL. This chair is hosted by the department Algemene en Rechtseconomie and will contribute to the prestigious Erasmus Mundus programmes (EDLE/EMLE). 
With the establishment of this new (endowed) chair in Law and Finance, the Erasmus School of Law (ESL) can pursue the following strategic goals:
1. Reinforce its leadership, certainly within the Netherlands and in Europe, in the economic analysis of law to which ESL is fully and increasingly committed since the establishment, in 1997, of the first full-time chair in Law and Economics in Europe.
2. Take the opportunity to establish the first chair in Law and Finance in continental Europe and - to our knowledge - the second in the world, signaling its commitment to cutting-edge research and specialized education in this field of expertise.
Prior to entering academia, Dr. Pacces had a career in financial policymaking, working first for the Italian Securities Authority and then for the Italian Central Bank where he was senior researcher in Law and Economics until 2007. In January 2008, Dr. Pacces defended at the EUR a PhD on an important Law and Finance subject, the Law and Economics of control powers in public companies. He was awarded a cum laude degree in consideration of the novelty and the quality of his dissertation. Before and particularly after taking his post as Tinbergen tenure track, Dr. Pacces has published extensively in the fields of economic analysis of corporate law, corporate governance, and the economics of (financial) regulation. Dr. Pacces has managed to publish in internationally renowned, peer-reviewed journals, both with a legal and with a finance background.
Published April 2012
PhD cum laude for Sharon Oded
Friday 30 March 2012, received Sharon Oded his PhD with the distinction Cum Laude for his PhD research entitled "Inducing Corporate Proactive Compliance: Liability Controls & Corporate Monitors". Sharon's supervisor was prof. dr. Michael Faure.
Awarding a Cum Laude is a rare event. It is provided on basis of the thesis - the research has to be excellent, contributing new insights in the scientific discipline concerned- and the defence has to be very good as well.
In his PhD research Sharon focused on Corporate Internal Enforcement Systems. The research is aimed at exploring a welfare-enhancing integration of internal enforcement programs in business corporations into the general enforcement policy.
Curriculum vitae
Sharon is a Law and Economics researcher at Rotterdam Institute of Law and Economics (RILE), Erasmus School of Law and has been a visiting scholar at the Center for Law, Business and the Economy at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. Sharon has been a RILE member since 2007 after graduating (cum laude) from the European Master of Law and Economics (EMLE). He also holds an LL.M (cum laude) in Commercial Law from Bar-Ilan University, Israel, and an LL.B (cum laude) from "Sha"arei Mishpat" College of Law, Israel. Sharon is a qualified lawyer, who has worked for leading Israeli law firms, and advised various business corporations on corporate governance, antitrust and regulatory compliance matters. For more information, please send an e-mail: rile@law.eur.nl
Published March 2012
Guest lecture series by Prof. Jonathan Klick on Empirical Legal Studies
From Monday 2 – Thursday 5 April from 10.00 – 11.45 hours Prof. Jonathan Klick will give a guest lecture series on Empirical Legal Studies at the Erasmus School of Law. After the lectures and in the week thereafter it is possible to make individual appointments with Prof. Klick.
Legal scholarship has grown increasingly empirical with researchers attempting to test legal theories that had previously been based on anecdotes or intuitions. Taking a cue from modern microeconometrics, economists working in empirical legal studies have focused primary attention on the issue of causality. Because we generally cannot run controlled experiments in legal and policy contexts, a number of issues arise with respect to causal inference. These lectures will highlight strategies used in empirical law and economics to isolate how legal and regulatory changes affect individual behaviour. The course will be an introduction to statistical methods used in law and economics and empirical legal studies. The course will ensure that the participants can be critical consumers of empirical research used in modern social science scholarship, and it will offer you a starting point for performing your own empirical law and economics research.
The seminar series is open to all who are interested and is free of charge.
Schedule lecture series:
Monday 2 April - classroom L1-132
Tuesday 3 April - classroom T3-25
Wednesday 4 April - classroom M1-04
Thursday 5 April - classroom T3-25
Registration for the lecture series: breijer@law.eur.nl For individual appointments: arw@law.eur.nl
Published March 2012
Call for Papers
Joint Seminar "Using Economics to Improve Regulation"
Beijing, 23 May 2012
On 23 May 2012 a joint seminar will be organized by the Centre for Law and Economics of the Chinese University of Political Science and Law (CUPL), where the seminar will also will take place, in collaboration with the Maastricht European Institute for Transnational Legal Research (METRO) and the Rotterdam Institute for Law and Economics (RILE), both located in the Netherlands.
The goal of the seminar is to inquire insights on the way in which economic tools can be used to improve the quality of regulation in general and legislative tools more particularly. This topic is of great importance for China since the rule of law is becoming increasingly important in China as well as a result of which the question arises how regulatory and legislative tools can be developed to accompany the Chinese evolution towards a welfare state in an effective manner.
We invite scholars to submit an abstract with a proposal for a paper which can be presented at the seminar on 23 May 2012. The proposed paper should be explained in an abstract of one page with a proposed table of contents and should in some way contribute to the goal of the seminar.
Abstracts are to be sent at the latest by 15 March 2012.Acceptance of papers and a preliminary programme will be communicated by the beginning of April 2012.
More information can be found here.
Published January 2012
Guest lecture by Magdalena Thöni
Thursday afternoon, 19 January, Magdalena Thöni will give a guest lecture in the EDLE seminar series on "Pricing the Priceless... - some empirical evidence on damages for pain and suffering".
The lecture will start at 13.00 in the Desiderius room (L5-098).
Abstract
Pricing the Priceless...
some empirical evidence on damages for pain and suffering
Damages for pain and suffering (DPS) represent monetary payments assigned by courts to compensate an individual for a physical and mental distress suffered from a personal injury. Working with a dataset, comprising about 5000 German and Austrian civil judgments on DPS over the last 25 years, we analyze on the one hand if DPS can be used to monetize human life. Within this work we propose an alternative approach for evaluating human life based on civil court decisions on DPS and calculate an average "Value of Damages for Pain and Suffering" (VDPS) of about EUR 1.79 millions, with a minimum (maximum) of around EUR 0.67 (4.62) millions.
On the other hand we are using the Austrian part of the dataset to determine the judicial pricing of pain and suffering and, in particular, investigate whether the corresponding compensations are affected by a court's calculation scheme (lump sum and per diem scheme). Thereby we find significant higher payments under the lump sum regime, which are not vanishing even after controlling for individual- and injury-specific characteristics.
Magdalena Thöni, assistant professor in the Department of Public Health and Health Technology Assesment at UMIT (University for Health Sciences, Medical informatics, and Technology), is visiting RILE from November 2011 until January 2012. Her research interest involves Law and Economics in Public Health, Public Health Law, Environmental Law, and Economics of Natural Hazards. See also her personal webpage
Guest lecture Prof. Brian Silverman
It's with great pleasure that we can announce that on Thursday 10 November Prof. Brian Silverman will give a guest lecture in the EDLE Seminar Series on "Managing Agency Problems in Early Shareholder Capitalism: An Exploration of Liverpool Shipping, 1744-1785".
Prof. Silverman is Full Professor Strategic Management and the J.R.S. Prichard and Ann Wilson Chair in Management at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Prior to this he spent three years as an Assistant Professor of Competition & Strategy at the Harvard Business School. He also worked for a few years as a management consultant for Temple, Barker & Sloane, now part of Oliver Wyman and co-founded the ICM Group, a consulting firm specializing in intellectual capital management. More information on Prof. Silverman is available on http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/facbios/viewFac.asp?facultyID=silverman or on http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/~silverman/
Date: Thursday 10 November 2011
Time: 14.00 - 16.00 hours
Location: G2-21
Registration is not required. The seminar is open to all who are interested.
Published October 2011
Magdalena Thöni visiting scholar
Magdalena Thöni, assistant professor in the Department of Public Health and Health Technology Assesment at UMIT (University for Health Sciences, Medical informatics, and Technology), is visiting RILE from November 2011 until January 2012. Her research interest involves Law and Economics in Public Health, Public Health Law, Environmental Law, and Economics of Natural Hazards. See also her personal webpage.
Published October 2011
Andri Wibisana visiting scholar
From October 2011 till the end of January 2012 Andri Wibisana joins RILE as an EMLE Erasmus Mundus visiting researcher . Andri Wibisana is a post‐doctoral researcher on ‘Paralysed Environmental Law: A Law and Economic Analysis of Environmental Liability and Compensation Mechanisms for Hazardous Activities in Indonesia’. He is also a lecturer on environmental law in the University of Indonesia’s Faculty of Law.
During his stay in Rotterdam Andri Wibisana will teach the course Public Law and Economics in the EMLE programme.
Published October 2011
Stefan Stöckl visiting scholar
In August 2011 Dr. Stefan Stöckl will visit the RILE to work on a joint research project on the Interrelation between Competition between Corporate Laws and Tax Law with Prof. Klaus Heine. Stefan Stöckl is currently employed as a senior researcher at the University of Augsburg. He studied Business Economics in Augsburg, with a focus on Financial and Banking Economics, Auditing and Controlling and Health Economics. In 2009 he defended his doctoral thesis summa cum laude. From 2010 onwards he is working as a senior researcher to complete his “Habilitation” with a focus on Financial and Information Management.
His main research interests are on Agency-Theory, Corporate Debt Securities, Bank Management, Credit Spreads, Financial Management, Integrated Profit and Risk Management and Corporate Assessment.
For more information and publications see also his personal website.
Published August 2011
Maria Pastore visiting researcher
From June till December 2011 Maria Pastore will stay with the RILE. She holds a PhD in Private Law and New Technologies from the University of Bari (2010), her doctoral thesis was on "I 'nuovi' beni nella prospettiva rimediale". With a Post-Doctoral research fellowship from the University of Bari she continues her studies on the 'mobile' boundaries of intellectual property rights, competition and law of remedies during her stay in Rotterdam.
Published July 2011
Thesis review in Bibliothèque Européenne
On 15 June 2011 a review of the thesis of both Sonja Keske (Group Litigation in European Competition Law) and Claudia Desogus (Competition and Innovation in the EU Regulation of Pharmaceuticals) was published in the European Library's Bulletin Quotidien Europe.
Both books are available with Intersentia.
Published June 2011
Neil Rickman appointed Chair Costs and Benefits of Regulation
Neil Rickman, Professor of Economics and Research Director at the Department of Economics at the University of Surrey, will be appointed part-time Chair Costs and Benefits of Regulation at Erasmus School of Law as per 1 July 2011.
Prof. Rickman graduated from the University of Durham (BA (Hons) Econ) in 1988, before moving to McGill University (Montreal) to read for a PhD in Economics, which was completed in 1995. From 1991 to 1995 he was a Research Officer in Economics at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford, and a lecturer in Economics at Pembroke College, Oxford. He moved to Surrey in 1995, and became Professor of Economics in 2004. He is a CEPR (Public Policy) Research Affiliate and became Chair of the Royal Economic Society's Conference of Heads of University Departments of Economics (CHUDE) in January 2007. Neil Rickman is also a member of the Government Economic Service Professional Development Board.
Prof. Rickman joins the Erasmus School of Law interdisciplinary research team “Behavioural approaches to contract and tort”. He will strengthen the research on costs and benefits of regulation within the master programme EMLE, the doctorate programme EDLE and the Rotterdam Institute of Law and Economics in general.
The Chair Costs and Benefits is financed by the Foundation Compliance, Enforcement and Regulation (Stichting Compliance, Toezicht en Regelgeving ). With this chair, the Erasmus School of Law aspires to add structural input to its multidisciplinary research activities. The chair will help raise research to a higher level both in comparative and interdisciplinary study of law as a regulatory instrument. The chair will contribute to the integration of the public debate concerning costs and benefits of regulation in an economical perspective and to the quality of regulation as developed from a legal perspective. Moreover, the chair will contribute to the academic debate on ‘better regulation’.
Published June 2011
Section of Law and Informatics joins the Section of Law and Economics
Per 1 July 2011 Prof. Richard De Mulder will retire and the Erasmus School of Law has decided not to continue the Chair on Law and Informatics. After careful consultation with Pieter Kleve and Kees van Noortwijk, it has been decided that the section Law and Informatics will formally be incorporated with the section of Law and Economics. On 1 July 2011 the symposium "Law, Technology and the New Paradigm of Performance" is organised on the occasion of the retirement of Prof. Richard De Mulder.
Published June 2011
Michael G. Faure, professor of Comparative Private Law and Economics aan Erasmus School of Law, has been elected as a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy for Science (KNAW) .
The Academy announced the news on her website.
Prof. Faure was happily surprised when he was contacted about the nomination recently. Since its inception, the Academy has been a learned society of scientists and scholars. Membership is awarded on the basis of scientific and scholarly achievement. Members are appointed for life.
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1808 as an advisory body to the Dutch Government – a role that it continues to play today. The Academy derives its authority from the quality of its members, who represent the full spectrum of scientific and scholarly endeavour and are selected on the basis of their achievements. It is also responsible for eighteen internationally renowned institutes whose research and collections put them in the vanguard of Dutch science and scholarship.
As the forum, conscience, and voice of the arts and sciences in the Netherlands, the Academy promotes quality in science and scholarship and strives to ensure that Dutch scholars and scientists contribute to cultural, social and economic progress. As a research organisation, the Academy is responsible for a group of outstanding national research institutes. It promotes innovation and knowledge valorisation within these institutes and encourages them to cooperate with one another and with university research groups.
Published May 2011
Erasmus Mundus visiting scholar - Assaf Hamdani
| From 11 April - 1 May 2011 Professor Assaf Hamdani will stay at the RILE as an EMLE Erasmus Mundus visiting scholar. |
Published March 2011
Jean Monnet fellowship awarded to Alessandra Arcuri
Alessandra Arcuri has been awarded the Jean Monnet fellowship, which is financed by the European Commission. A Jean Monnet fellowship is a prestigious internationally renowned award. For one year, Arcuri shall conduct research on ‘The Public Dimensions of Private Regulatory Regimes in the Area of Social Regulation’. The project aims at investigating the phenomenon of private regulation in the context of global governance regimes for the protection of human health, environment and social rights (e.g. private food safety regimes, environmental and ethi‐cal certification systems, etc).
Published March 2011
EMLE Graduation Ceremony
| On Saturday 12 February 2011 the Graduation Ceremony for the 2009/2010 class of the European Master in Law and Economics (EMLE) took place. It was opened by an invited lecture by Anthony Ogus, professor at the Erasmus School of Law. Then the ‘best thesis winner’ of the 2009/2010 class, Hannah Duncombe, was invited to present her excellent thesis on “Teacher Incentives and Regulation of Education in the UK”. Next to that, all graduates 2009/2010 being present, around 60 out of 84 graduates, received their official documents, handed over by one of the staff members of one of the partners and a short personal word. |
Visiting researcher Florian Baumann |
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Published March 2011
New publication by Mark Tuil and Louis Visscher: “New Trends In Financing Civil Litigation In Europe”
This unique and timely book analyses the problem of financing civil litigation. The expert contributors discuss the legal possibilities and difficulties associated with several instruments - including cost shifting, free arrangements, legal expense insurance and group litigation. The authors assess the impact of these instruments from a law and economics perspective and provide empirical information on the way in which they work in practice, A transatlantic perspective on financing civil litigation is also provided. New Trends In Financing Civil Litigation In Europe reveals that as well as improving access to justice, several instruments have the potential to screen cases based on their quality. The book also shows how the choice of instrument can affact the behaviour of actors throughout the litigation process. |
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Published March 2011
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Pieter Desmet appointed with RILEStarting February, Pieter Desmet has joined RILE and will be working as a Post‐doctoral Researcher in the BACT research programme. Pieter has a background in Economics (BA, University of Antwerp) and in Experimental Psychology (MA, Catholic University of Leuven) and will defend his PhD thesis on the psychology of financial compensations (Rotterdam School of Management) on 10 May 2011. In his research, Pieter studies how people react to harmful behaviour in economic relations, and more importantly, how victims perceive, process and react to different restorative practices (compensation, apologies…). In this venture, he investigates how characteristics of the violation, the victim, the transgressor and the reparative act itself impact the restoration process. |
Published February 2011
Visiting researcher Mitja KovačDuring March 2011 Ass. Professor Mitja Kovač will stay at the RILE Institute as a visiting researcher. Mitja Kovač was born in 1976, graduated law with “cum laude” at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Law (Slovenia). He gained his LL.M. and PhD in the field of comparative contract law and economics at Utrecht University, Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance (The Netherlands). In 2006 he became also a member of the Economic Impact Group within the CoPECL Network of Excellence (European DCFR project). He was a visiting research fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in London (UK), at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis (USA), and at the University of Ghent Faculty Of Law (Belgium). Currently he is an assistant professor at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Economics, Chair of Law (Slovenia), a visiting lecturer at the University College Utrecht, Utrecht University (The Netherlands), and at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis (USA). He publishes extensively in the fields of comparative contract law and economics, consumer protection, contract theory and competition law and economics. |
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Published February 2011
Inaugural lecture by Professor Klaus Heine
On Thursday 6 January 2011 Prof.dr. Klaus Heine, appointed as professor of Law and Economics, will publicly accept his appointment with an inaugural lecture entitled: 'Organizational Science meets Law and Economics'.
Date: Thursday 6 Janary 2011
Time: 16.00 hours
Location: Senaatszaal
Published January 2011
Erasmus Mundus visiting scholar - Guangdong Xu
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From 10 January 2011 - 15 March 2011 Prof. Guangdong Xu, from the Research Center for Law and Economics of China University of Political Science and Law (Beijing) will visit the RILE as an EMLE Erasmus Mundus visiting scholar. In 2004 he defended his thesis "Institutional Transition of China's Trust Industry: 1979-2002. He is a specialist in Chinese bankruptcy law. His main research interest is law and economic growth. Published January 2011 |
Guest lecture EDLE Seminar Series by Alessio Pacces on 'Law and Economics of the Financial Crisis'
On Thursday 16 December 2010 Dr. Alessio Pacces will give a guest lecture in the EDLE Seminars Series on 'Law and Economics of the Financial Crisis'.
This lecture is open to all who are interested. Advance registration is not necessary.
Date: Thursday 16 December 2010
Time: 14.00-16.00 hours (informal drinks afterwards)
Location: Desiderius room (L5-098)
Published December 2010
Visiting researcher Jef De Mot
Published December 2010 |
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Guest lecture by Jonathan Klick on 'The Effect of Contract Regulation: The Case of Franchising'
Thursday 28 October 2010, 14.00-16.00 hours
Desiderius room (L5-098)
States and the federal government have enacted laws intended to police franchisors' use of termination provisions in franchise contracts to opportunistically take over profitable establishments. This regulation may, however, reduce the total number of chain outlets because franchising is a valuable form of contracting and termination rights allow franchisors to police franchisee free-riding on the franchised trademark. On the other hand, no such effect is implied if the regulation reduces franchisors' extra gains from skimming profitable franchises. We exploit two new sources of data to provide new empirical evidence on the effects of franchise regulation. Panel data on fast food establishments extracted from uniform franchise offering circulars show that laws restricting franchisor termination rights lead to a reduction in franchising, and this reduction is not offset by the concomitant increase in franchisor-operated establishments. This article also examines how Coasian bargaining between the franchisor and franchisee can mitigate the effect of regulation. In particular, regulation may be apparently important but actually inconsequential because affected parties can easily waive the regulation or avoid it through contractual choice-of-law and choice-of-forum clauses. To examine this, we use state employment data to more broadly examine the effects of franchise regulation. We find that employment in franchise industries is significantly reduced when states enact restrictions on franchisor termination rights and the effect is larger when states limit the ability to contract around these restrictions.
Published October 2010
Guest lecture by Hila Nevo on 'The Laws of Monopoly - Do Legal and Economic Analyses Coincide?'
On Thursday 21 October 2010 Dr. Hila Nevo (a former PhD of the Erasmus School of Law) will give a guest lecture in the EDLE Seminars Series on 'The Laws of Monopoly - Do Legal and Economic Analyses Coincide?'. She will discuss recent trends in the analysis of dominant positions, and the respective lessons from economic theory.
The lecture is open to all who are interested. Advance registration is not necessary.
Date: Thursday 21 October 2010
Time: 14.00-16.00 hours
Location: Desiderius room (L5-098)
Published October 2010
Inaugural lecture by Professor Jonathan Klick
On Tuesday 26 October Professor Jonathan Klick held his inaugural lecture on 'The Empirical Revolution in Law and Economics' (Senaatszaal, 16.00 hours).
In his inaugural address Prof. Klick describes the movement of law and economics from an almost exclusively theoretical and intuitive field of research to a predominantly empirical one. This movement is documented with descriptive data from the journals that focus on law and economics. He then discusses possible reasons for the trend and speculate about whether it will continue and, more important, how empirical work is likely to change in the future.
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Along the way, he will offer thoughts on various issues, such as why the empirical movement has not yet caught on in European law and economics, how empirical law and economics differs from the related empirical legal studies movement, and why the most prominent literature in empirical law and economics, the legal origins/law and finance literature, actually represents bad law and bad econometrics.
For more detailed information please contact: Marianne Breijer
Published October 2010
New Publication by Firat Bilgel: 'The impact of presumed consent laws and institutions on deceased organ donation'
Recently, the article 'The impact of presumed consent laws and institutions on deceased organ donation' by Firat Bilgel, one of the EDLE PhD students, has been published in the European Journal of Health Economics.The full article can be downloaded here.
Published October 2010
New publication by Alessio Pacces: "The Law And Economics Of Corporate Governance Changing Perspectives"
In this timely book, the law and economics of corporate governance is approached from various angles. Alessio Pacces shows that perspectives are evolving and that they differ 
between the economic and the legal standpoint, as well as varying between countries. A group of leading scholars offer their views and provide fresh empirical evidence on existing theories as well as developing new theoretical insights based on empirical puzzles. They all analyse the economics of corporate governance with a view to how it should, or should not, be regulated.
The book is published with Edward Elgar: www.e-elgar.com.
Published October 2010
Erasmus Mundus visiting scholar - Hila Nevo
From Mid October till end November 2010 Dr Hila Nevo (Israel) will stay at the RIL
E Institute as a visiting scholar of the Erasmus Mundus European Master in Law and Economics (EMLE).
During her stay she will teach the course in Microeconomics and she will conduct research in Law and Economics.
Hila Nevo is a graduate from the EMLE programme and in 2007 she obtained her doctorate at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Published September 2010
Double EDLE PhD Defence on 17 September: Rosa Casto Bernieri and Stefano Clò
On 17 September 2010 two PhDs in the EDLE programme, will hold their defence.
The first will be Rosa Castro Bernieri, who will hold her defence on 'Ex-Post Liability Rules in Modern Patent Law".
The full text of the summary can be downloaded here.
Date and time: 17 September 2010, 11.30 hours
Place: Senaatszaal, Woudestein Campus, Rotterdam
The second defence will be by Stefano Clò, who will hold his defence on 'Economic Analysis of the European Climate Policy: the European Emissions Trading Scheme'.
The full text of the summary can be downloaded here.
Date and time: 17 September 2010, 13.30 hours
Place: Senaatszaal, Woudestein Campus, Rotterdam
Published September 2010
New publication by André van der Walt and Michael G. Faure: "Globalization and Private Law. The Way Forward?"
This timely book explores the relationship between private law and globalization. It e
xamines the consequences of the fact that law making now takes place in a globalized world which increasingly leads to questions of accountability and legitimacy of the law making process.
Within this work, European and South African scholars deal with the relationship between private law and globalization in fourteen innovative chapters, addressing inter alia globalization, democracy and accountability, harmonization versus decentralization, public law issues, corporate governance, procedural issues as well as human rights and the environment.
This well-documented and original study will be a valuable resource for academics and legal practitioners as well as students. Specialists in private law, transnational law, international law and legal theory should also not be without this important book. 
The book is published with Edward Elgar: www.e-elgar.com.
Published August 2010
New publication by Daniel A. Farber and Michael G. Faure on Disaster Law
The field of disaster law has witnessed a huge surge in interest over the past few years. Building widespread recognition of the shortcomings of legal systems faced with disasters, academics have increasingly turned their attention to exploring how these failings can be addressed. This volume is a carefully selected collection of essays which focus on the legal and economic aspects of disaster law and pays particular attention to the legalities of catastrophes. The editors have brought together seminal papers analysing how disasters, both natural and man-made, could be prevented and investigating the ways in which compensation for such events could be provided.
This set of indispensable papers examines such issues through a variety of analytical lenses and provides a solid foundation for future developments in this dynamic and highly topical subject.
The book is published with Edward Elgar: www.e-elgar.com.
Published August 2010
Guest lecture Bogdan Krivolapov
On Thursday 10th of June from 15.00-17.00 in room L5-98 (Desi-room) at the Erasmus School of Law, Bogdan Krivolapov, Erasmus Mundus Visiting Scholar at the RILE institute will give a guestlecture on “The effect of lending policies of the International Monetary Fund “.
The lecture is devoted to the problems of financial assistance by the International Monetary Fund during the financial crisis. It is given the characteristic of International Monetary Fund (IMF) lending from the 1960s to 2010. IMF lending includes stand-bys, extended arrangements, structural adjustment facilities, and enhanced structural adjustment facilities. The purpose of this lecture is to analyze not only the lending mechanisms and conditions but also the results of such financial help.
Published May 2010
Biography Bogdan Kryvolapov
The RILE Institute has the honour of welcoming Bogdan Kryvolapov as an Erasmus Mundus visiting research scholar from 1 April till the end of June 2010. Professor Kryvolapov will mainly conduct research on private international law. On 10 June he will give a guest lecture on 'The effect of lending policies of the International Monetary Fund'.
Bogdan Kryvolapov started his career at the Kiev Shevchenko University as a student in 1987. From 2004-2005 he was a visiting research scholar of George Washington University, Washington D.C. He is currently appointed associate law professor of Kiev National Shevchenko University, at the Institute of International relations, department of international law. His teaching areas are: private international law, international financial law, banking law.
Published April 2010
Interview with Alexander Ponomarev about his research visit at the RILE
In autumn 2008, the RILE had the honor to host Mr Alexander Ponomarev, a visiting scholar from Russia. Mr Ponomarev holds a position of senior lecturer in the Department of Economic Theory of one of Russia’s most prestigious universities - Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University).
Upon his return Mr Ponomarev gave an interview regarding his experience in the RILE which is posted on the MGIMO – University website. Since this interview is in Russian, an English summary is added hereunder.
Mr Ponomarev points at the advantages of the Erasmus University educational system as compared with that of the MGIMO – University. EUR students are more independent in their learning process. They are given only framework lectures. The rest of the materials they learn independently by using the recommended literature, Internet and library resources. The learning process is aimed at forming new initiatives in discovering information and is the key to their future professional growth. The open-book exams also allow the students to show their creativity and individual skills. Mr Ponomarev also appraises the PhD programme as being very efficient. Mr Ponomarev suggests that such methods can also be successfully adopted in his home university.
Mr Ponomarev further speaks about EMLE and EDLE programmes run by the RILE. He praises their interdisciplinary approach and international character as major factors of excellence. He emphasizes the growing importance of Law and Economics in the curriculum of major universities both in the USA and Europe and pointed at its underdevelopment in Russia. Currently, MGIMO – University is working on introducing the course on Economic Analysis of Law in its curriculum. Some elements of Law and Economics are already being used as parts of other courses.
Mr Ponomarev finds his stay in the RILE very productive as he took part in lectures, seminars, presentations and discussions in the framework of the RILE. He has also attended the conference organized by the RILE “Changing Perspectives in Law and Economics”. The collected materials and gained experience will be used to develop a Law and Economics course in the MGIMO - University.
Published March 2010
Application procedure open for the European Doctorate in Law and Economics (EDLE): 10 Erasmus Mundus scholarships available
The European Doctorate in Law and Economics (EDLE), offered by the Universities of Bologna, Hamburg and Rotterdam in collaboration with the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (Mumbay), is currently welcoming applications for the academic year 2010.
EDLE is a 3-years doctoral programme of excellence supported by the European Commission under the Erasmus Mundus action.
Applications of promising economists and lawyers interested in carrying out research on the economic analysis of law are solicited.
10 Mundus Scholarships (net income about € 1600 pcm) are available
Application deadline: 15 February 2010
Please visit: www.edle-phd.eu
Published January 2010
Jonathan Klick appointed Erasmus Chair of Empirical Legal Studies
Jonathan Klick (1975), Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, has been appointed part-time Erasmus Chair of Empirical Legal Studies at Erasmus School of Law. Prof. Klick is both a lawyer and economist and he specializes in empirical law and economics.
Prof. Klick joins the Erasmus School of Law interdisciplinary research team “Behavioural approaches to contract and tort” (www.behaviouralapproaches.eu) to pursue new strands of empirical research into areas such as corporate governance and tort law. Prof. Klick has ample experience in methodology of empirical law and economics and he will thus provide invaluable input for accomplishing the empirical aspirations of Erasmus School of Law research.
For further details on the research programme, please visit www.behaviouralapproaches.eu
For a profile of Professor Klick, please visit Penn Law.
Published December 2009
Michael Faure - visit to China
From 1 - 9 November 2009 Michael Faure visited the annual colloqium of the Academy for Environmental Law of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Wuhan, the Dalian Maritime University and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). Please press here for a full report of the visit.
Published December 2009
Huldeboek voor Mr. Jos van Goethem: Recente ontwikkelingen in het arbeids-, economisch, straf- en familierecht
Dit boek is geschreven om hulde te brengen aan een opmerkelijk advocaat aan de balie van Antwerpen die op 21 augustus 2009 zijn 80ste verjaardag heeft bereikt, Mr. Jozef van Goethem. De auteurs aan dit huldeboek is allen gevraagd om aandacht te besteden aan een onderwerp dat Mr. Van Goethem bijzonder ter harte gaat. In zijn praktijk heeft Mr. Van Goethem veel aandacht gehad voor het arbeids-, economisch, straf- en familierecht. Het is dan ook rond deze thema's dat de bijdragen zijn gegroepeerd en op die thema's ligt dan ook de focus. Bijna alle auteurs hebben op een of andere wijze professioneel met Mr. Van Goethem samengewerkt.
Het boek is, onder redactie van Michael Faure en Wilfried Rauws, uitgegeven bij Intersentia.
Published December 2009
Dr. Klaus Heine appointed to the Erasmus School of Law Chair of Law and Economics
Klaus Heine (1970) has been appointed Chair of Law and Economics at Erasmus School of Law in Rotterdam. Heine, who is currently associate professor at the Department for Human and Economic Sciences, University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology (UMIT, Vienna, Austria), received his education as an economist at Philipps-University, Marburg, Germany.
Professor Heine has since developed extensive experience in the areas of European integration, economic policy and institutional economics. Moreover, he specializes in the law and economics of corporate governance and theory of the firm.
As of January, 2010, dr. Heine joins the Rotterdam Institute of Law and Economics (www.rile.nl) and he will participate in the research programme “Behavioural Approaches to Contract and Tort: Relevance for Policymaking”. For further details on the research programme, please visit www.behaviouralapproaches.eu. For a profile of Professor Heine, please visit UMIT.
Published November 2009
Prof. Palanichamy Babu visiting scholar
The RILE Institute has the honour of welcoming Prof. Palanichamy Babu as a visiting professor from 1 October till mid November 2009. During his stay Prof. Babu will teach the Microeconomics course in the EMLE programme.
P.G. Babu is Dean of Graduate Studies at Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai, India, and has Adam Smith Chair Guest Professorship in Philosophy and Economics at University of Bayreuth, Germany. He visits the Institutes of Law and Economics at the University of Hamburg and the Erasmus University at Rotterdam, and coordinates the Law and Economics Program at IGIDR, which is a part of the Erasmus Mundus Consortium on European Masters and Doctoral Programs in Law and Economics. His Ph.D. is from Indian Institute of Science and has taught as visiting faculty at several institutions including IIM Ahmedabad and Madras School of Economics. His research interests include Microeconomic Theory with applications to Environment, Natural Resources and Law, Non-cooperative Game theory with applications to market design protocols such as bargaining, auctions, matching, and Information Economics. At IGIDR, he has organized several capacity building workshops in Law and Economics, apart from various specialized conferences and workshops on topics such as Social Norms and Institutional Structures, Peace Science and Game Theory. He is a consulting editor for the Indian Journal of Law and Economics.
EDLE receives Erasmus Mundus status by the European Commission
The European Doctorate for Law and Economics (EDLE) has been selected for funding under the ‘Erasmus Mundus’ scheme of the European Commission.
Erasmus Mundus is a cooperation and mobility funding programme of the European Union that aims to support excellence in doctorate studies. The grant includes 18 full stipends and additional finance for high level education and for mobility of students and faculty.
EDLE is operated jointly by the Universities of Rotterdam, Bologna and Hamburg together with the Indira Ghandi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai, as an associated partner. EDLE aims at furthering excellent doctoral research in law and economics. Students spent one term at each partner university and have the option of an additional research period at the IGIDR. The degree ‘Dr. EDLE‘ is awarded by each of the partner universities.
The participation of the European Doctorate in Law and Economics in Erasmus Mundus reinforces the position of the EDLE as the leading European doctoral programme in law and economics.
Additional information about the Mundus Scholarships will be provided by the European Commission in the fall. It will be posted on the website as soon as it becomes available.
EMLE selected for Erasmus Mundus II
We are very pleased to announce that the EMLE programme has been selected for the second round of the European Commission's Erasmus Mundus initiative (EM II). This signifies another five years of financial support from the Commission for researchers and students, besides being a great recognition of the EMLE programme's qualities in teaching and organisation.
EMLE was one of the first master programmes to be selected for Erasmus Mundus support in 2004 and has since benefited from generous student grants. Funding under EM II will enable even greater financial support for European students, while grants for third country students will continue to be available. As a further consequence of the selection for EM II, the EMLE consortium of universities will change in compostion as of the academic year 2010/2011. The University of Manchester will no longer participate, while the Warsaw School of Economics (Poland) and the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (Mumbai, India) will join the network. The University of Haifa, currently EMLE's non-European partner university, will become a full consortium member.
2009 EALE Annual Conference
The European Association of Law and Economics celebrates its twentyfifth year of activity. The conference of 2009 is organized by LUISS Guido Carli in Rome from 17 – 19 September 2009.
In the last several years, law and economics has been the focus of unprecedented expansion as a field of study in Italy. The conference selects original works on all topics related to law and economics including: Antitrust and Regulation; Bankruptcy Law; Behavioral Law and Economics; Commercial Law; Comparative Law and Economics; Contract Law; Corporate Law and Corporate Governance; Criminal Law -Environmental law and economics; Experimental Law and Economics; Family Law; Gender; and Discrimination; Health Law -Intellectual Property and Innovation Policy -International Law; International Trade; and Immigration -Labor and Employment Law; Law and Development; Litigation; Dispute Resolution and the Legal Process - Political economy and public choice; Property Law- Public and Administrative Law; Securities Law and Capital Market Regulation; Taxation and Social Welfare; Theory of the Firm (Includes Non-Profits and Government Orgs.); Tort Law and Compensation. This year we solicit scholars also to submit works on the economic analysis of ancient law, with a particular focus on Roman law.
Numerous papers will be presented, amongst which the following from members of the RILE Institute and EDLE PhD students:
Alessandra Arcuri, The Costs of Community Enforcement of WTO Law
Alessandra Arcuri and Rosa Castro, How Innovative is Innovative Enough? Reflections on the Interpretation of Article 27 Trips from Novartis vs Union of India
Sofia Amaral Garcia, Veronica Grembi, Nuno Garoupa, Explaining Dissent in the Kelsenian Constitutional Courts: The Case of Portugal
Michael G. Faure, Effectiveness of Environmental Public Interest Litigation in India: Determining the Key Variables
Sharon Oded, Inducing Corporate Compliance: A Law and Economics Analysis of Corporate Liability Regimes
Alessio Maria Pacces, Law and Economics of the Financial Crisis: Rethinking Market and Regulatory Failures in a World of Uncertainty
Katarina Svatikova and Michael Faure, Criminal or Administrative Law to Protect the Environment? Evidence from Western Europe
Ann-Sophie Vandenberghe, To Mix and to Match Independently: Protecting Consumers Against Mis-selling
More information about the EALE 2009 Conference can be obtained from: http://www.eale09.eu/ocs2/index.php/EALE/roma09
New book on Tort Law and Economics
Tort Law and Economics, edited by Michael Faure, is part of the Encyclopedia of Law and Economics, and enables readers, some not familiar with law and economics, to obtain an insight in the relevant economic literature concerning tort law and economics. This book will be of interest to lawyers and economists, practitioners and academics interested in accident law, tort law, insurance and regulation. It will also appeal to students in economic analysis of law and policymakers working on prevention of accidents, tort law or compensation of accident victims.
This volume provides a state-of-the-art overview of the literature on the economic analysis of tort law. In sixteen chapters, the specialist authors guide the reader through the often vast literature in each domain providing a balanced and comprehensive summary. Particular attention is paid to the evolution of the field, further refinements to economic models and relevant conclusions and lessons for the policymaker.
Published by Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
ISBN: 978 1 84720 659 6
Prize for best paper
On June 16, Vania Karapanou and Louis Visscher have won a prize for best paper at the 13th Meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean Law and Economics Association (ALACDE) in Barcelona. Vania presented their paper 'The Magnitude of Pain and Suffering Damages from a Law and Economics and Health Economics Point of View', in which the concept of Quality Adjusted Life Years from the domain of Health Economics is used to enable a better assessment of pain and suffering damages in personal injury cases. The paper can be downloaded from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1327793
Overview China trip Michael Faure from 30 May - 9 June
From 31 May until 3 June Michael Faure visited the Weihai branch of the Shandong University. Michael has been teaching three days on Environmental Law and Economics and had contact with the Dean of the Faculty of Economics Professor Zhang Donghui.
On 4 and 5 June Metro (where Michael Faure is also appointed as professor) organised jointly with the Dalian Maritime University Law School an international conference on Marine Pollution Law and Policy at the occasion of the hundred anniversary of Dalian Maritime University. Maastricht University and Metro were widely acknowledged as co-organisers of this event in the conference programme. There was a wide international participation from many experts in the field of Maritime Law, among whom Dr. Mans Jacobsson (former Director of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund), Prof. Marc Huybrechts (Emeritus from the KU Leuven), Prof. Rhidian Thomas (Swansea University) etc. A selection of the papers presented at the conference will be published in a book to be published with Kluwer Law International under editorship of Michael Faure, Han Lixin and Shan Hongjun.
On 8 June 2009 Michael visited Beijing where he met inter alia with Prof. Zhang Xinzhu. A joint conference on Competition and Regulation will be organised on 5-6 December with Prof. Zhang in Nanchang where international well known scholars such as Prof. Daniel Rubinfeld (Berkeley) and Thomas Ulen (Illinois) will participate as well as Niels Philipsen and Stefan Weishaar (Metro).
An appointment was also made with Hao Zhang from the Beijing Forestry University who have specialists in the domain of Environmental Criminal Law. A joint paper will be produced by Michael Faure, Prof. Xu Ping and Zhang Hao for the conference of the Academy of Environmental Law of the IUCN to be organised in Wuhan in November 2009.
Alessio Pacces appointed ECGI Research Associate
The Board of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) approved the recommendation of the Research Associates Committee, chaired by Professor Klaus Hopt, to appoint 23 new ECGI Research Associates.
We are very proud to announce that Alessio Pacces is one of them. The list of new Associates may be found at http://www.ecgi.org/members_directory/research_associates_2009.php
Guest Lecture Iraj Babaei
The RILE Institute has the honour of hosting professor Iraj Babaei as a visiting scholar from April till July 2009. Within this scope we are very glad to announce two guest lectures, open to all who are interested, by professor Babaei:
Wednesday 17 June 2009, 15.00 - 16.30 h.
Current Challenges for Interpreting and Applying Islamic law (/Sharia/).
Iranian Experience.
Room: T3-24
Download paper
Download powerpoint presentation
Thursday 18 June 2009, 15.00 - 16.30 h.
Law & Economic Development.
Reflection about why many developing countries could not carry out necessary legal conditions for economic development
Room: T3-24
Download paper
Download powerpoint presentation
We hope that you will find the topics as interesting as we do and hope that you will be attending one or both lectures (no need for registration). No doubt several questions will be raised, so there will be enough time for discussions afterwards, or during the last weeks of Prof. Babaei's stay in Rotterdam and maybe even continuing afterwards.
Inaugural Lecture Michael Faure
On Friday 12 June 2009 Michael Faure will hold his inaugural lecture on "The Impact of Behavioral Law and Economics on Accident Law" (Aula, Woudestein Campus, 16.00 hours).
In his inauguration address Michael Faure examines the consequences of the literature on behavioural law and economics for the economic analysis of accident law. He discusses the psychological literature which shows that to a large extent parties involved in an accident setting (victims and injurers) but also judges do not act in the way as predicted by the rational actor model. Faure discusses the implications of the behavioural literature for traditional economic models of tort and insurance. He argues that it is important to take these cognitive limitations into account, but that it may be difficult to incorporate those since the results from the behavioural studies are often multidirectional. He therefore argues that as far as the economic analysis of tort law is concerned it is important to follow the results of the behavioural studies, but too early yet to replace traditional economics of torts with an alternative paradigm. A much stronger conclusion can however be formulated with respect to insurance: behavioural literature can provide an important support for attendance in many legal systems to introduce compulsory first-party insurance policies, more particularly for natural hazards like e.g. flooding. Moreover the so called hindsight biases teaches the judge to be careful in judging “sins of the past” on the basis of norms of today.
For more detailed information please contact: Marianne Breijer
Iraj Babaei - visiting professor from Iran
The RILE Institute has the honour of welcoming professor Iraj Babaei as a visiting scholar in Rotterdam from April till July 2009. Iraj Babaei is professor at University Allameh Tabatabaii in Tehran, Iran. He studied in Tehran, Strasbourg and Paris and was among other things visiting scholar at University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
His main interests are on Law and Economics, Theory of Law, Tort Law, Islamic Law, Contract Law, Insurance Law and Comparative Law. His most recent publications are 'Law and Insurance' and 'The Nature of Insurance Contract in Iranian Law'. Under publication: The Elements of Judicial Security. An approach to Iranian Law'.
Prof. Babaei can be contacted through the RILE.
Interview (in Dutch) with Alessio Pacces in Transfer (NUFFIC Magazine)
Voor de Nederlandsee kenniseconomie zijn ze hard nodig: talentvolle wetenschappers uit het buitenland. Wie zijn deze kenniswerkers? Transfer praat met negen van hen. Deze maand de Italiaan Alessio Maria Pacces, hoofddocent rechtseconomie aan de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam.Lees verder
New trends in Financing Civil Litigation in Europe: A legal, empirical and economic analysis
Conference April 24, 2009, Erasmus University Rotterdam
The Conference on New Trends in Financing Civil Litigation in Europe aims at analyzing the different possible solutions to the financing problems from a legal, empirical, and Law and Economics point of view. For more detailed information click here
The Conference is embedded in the Erasmus School of Law's research programme Behavioural Approaches to Contract and Tort: Relevance for Policy Making.
EDLE Seminar in Paris
On invitation of Prof. Bruno Deffains and Prof. Eric Brousseau of the University of Paris Ouest (Nanterre), the last EDLE seminar of this academic year was held in Paris on Thursday 12 and Friday 13 March, together with Ph.D. students from Nanterre University and Maastricht University. A wide range of topics in Law and Economics was covered by fourteen of them, giving a presentation about their research. All papers and presentations were reviewed by a discussant, which led to interesting conversations, that went on during lunch. Fruitful contacts were made between young Ph.D. students and professors as well.
Next year this closing seminar will take place in Rotterdam.
