The 1991 Delaware court ruling involving Credit Lyonnais expanded the fiduciary duties of managers towards debtholders in the event that a firm is within the proximity of insolvency. Using a difference-in-differences approach that exploits this exogenous shock, we find that the 1991 ruling induced managers of Delaware firms ex ante to place a greater emphasis on investments that foster long-ter...

principles of judicial review in administrative law are basic criteria developed through judicial decisions. most of these principles have a legal value in modern administrative law. in this paper some of these principles and criteria have been studied in switzerland administrative law. in this country the legality, equality, public interest, good faith, hearing and proportionality principles h...

The quality of a state’s judicial system is an important determinant of economic growth and vitality. The decisions made within state judicial systems affect the degree to which private property rights are well-defined and enforced, which is an essential building block for entrepreneurial activity and economic growth. The key link between free-market institutions, such as secure property rights...

Are judicial rulings based solely on laws and facts? Legal formalism holds that judges apply legal reasons to the facts of a case in a rational, mechanical, and deliberative manner. In contrast, legal realists argue that the rational application of legal reasons does not sufficiently explain the decisions of judges and that psychological, political, and social factors influence judicial rulings...

Racial and gender disparities are prevalent in the criminal justice system, but the sources of these disparities remain largely unknown. This paper investigates whether judge political affiliation contributes to these disparities using data on over 500,000 federal defendants linked to sentencing judge. Exploiting random case assignment, we find that Republican appointed judges sentence black de...

How do judicial elections affect the propensity of judges to write opinions that are understandable to the public? Drawing on a growing literature that analyzes the content of judicial opinions computationally, I examine the readability of all state supreme court search and seizure decisions from 2000-2010. I assess the hypothesis that, just as judicial elections increase judges’ propensities t...