Academic

Legal Theory Bookworm

By Lawrence Solum

The Legal Theory Bookworm recommends The Law Market by Erin O'Hara & Larry E. Ribstein.  Here is a description:

Today, a California resident can incorporate her shipping business in Delaware, register her ships in Panama, hire her employees from Hong Kong, place her earnings in an asset-protection trust formed in the Cayman Islands, and enter into a same-sex marriage in Massachusetts or Canada--all the while enjoying the California sunshine and potentially avoiding many facets of the state's laws. In this book, Erin O'Hara and Larry E. Ribstein explore a new perspective on law, viewing it as a product for which people and firms can shop, regardless of geographic borders. The authors consider the structure and operation of the market this creates, the economic, legal, and political forces influencing it, and the arguments for and against a robust market for law. Through jurisdictional competition, law markets promise to improve our laws and, by establishing certainty, streamline the operation of the legal system. But the law market also limits governments' ability to enforce regulations and protect citizens from harmful activities. Given this tradeoff, O'Hara and Ribstein argue that simple contractual choice-of-law rules can help maximize the benefits of the law market while tempering its social costs. They extend their insights to a wide variety of legal problems, including corporate governance, securities, franchise, trust, property, marriage, living will, surrogacy, and general contract regulations.

The Law Market is a wide-ranging and novel analysis for all lawyers, policymakers, legislators, and businesses who need to understand the changing role of law in an increasingly mobile world.

And from the reviews:

"O'Hara and Ribstein's book is a breakthrough in legal scholarship. Recognizing that the unprecedented mobility of today's society gives economic actors substantial choice over the law that will govern their affairs, the authors analyze law as a product that is produced by states and marketed to consumers. The authors thereby identify a fundamental feature of contemporary business law that has until now been overlooked or only imperfectly understood. The book is chock-full of original insights into the operation of this 'market for law', and offers a valuable analysis of the pros and cons of this development from the standpoint of public policy." --Geoffrey P. Miller, New York University Law School

"O'Hara and Ribstein are the first to expose how the ability of private persons to choose the law that shall govern them - in business and in their personal lives - is transforming our legal system. Drawing on public policy and economics in an approachable, commonsense way, they sketch the implications of the law market for our world today, and show how its emergence calls for a careful balance between individual freedom and regulation to advance the public good. This book is a must-read, not only for lawyers with real-world clients but also for every corporate general counsel and legislative staff member grappling with our globalized law market." --Richard A. Nagareda, Vanderbilt University Law School

"This is a pathbreaking book - theoretically sophisticated and carefully applied. O'Hara and Ribstein's concept of the 'law market' captures an essential truth about the conflicts revolution, and their thesis carries profound implications for wide swaths of the law, ranging from international investment disputes to same-sex marriage." --Peter B. Rutledge, University of Georgia Law School

An important book.  Highly recommended.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on January 10, 2009 (boomark / email).