Op-Ed Pieces
A key goal of the Law Lab is to spark new ideas, debate, and conversation, while highlighting diverse perspectives on the forces that shape the role of law and social norms as they enable cooperation, governance, and entrepreneurial innovation. By inviting op-ed pieces and other contributions from thinkers at the cutting edge of research in our fields, we hope to stimulate ongoing discussion of the opportunities and challenges presented by the evolving digital landscape.
The Case for Evolvable Contract Spreadsheets, by John H. Clippinger
A good contract is a fair contract. A contract is fair when it is willfully entered into with full and informed consent. Fairness is not just a matter of how the contract is drafted, but how it is understood. Parties need to understand how their interests are served and need to feel confident that they [...]
Post Date: April 18, 2010 [read more]
The Promise of Digital LLC, by Oliver Goodenough
The Internet is creating a new class of web-based, geographically-dispersed entrepreneurs. Digital communication allows work, capital, and knowledge to come together in a virtual world that can let go of the old necessities of handshakes and paperwork. Until recently, however, the legal frameworks available for structuring these businesses haven’t kept pace. With the advent of [...]
Post Date: April 13, 2010 [read more]
Meta-currency: a step towards the Rheonomy By Eric Harris-Braun
In her beautifully insightful book, The Nature of Economies, Jane Jacobs suggests that we must broaden our understanding of economics in the context of the flow processes of the natural world. Near the end of the book one of her characters asks the question, “What are economies for?” One of the other characters answers: “… [...]
Post Date: July 01, 2009 [read more]
Demystifying the “Wealth of Nations” By Julius O. Akinyemi
A case for how Developing Nations (especially African Nations) can create and grow wealth, and be key players in Global Growth and Prosperity. Economists from time immemorial have questioned and researched why some nations have been able to grow wealth and some have not. Transforming an underdeveloped economy to a developed economy requires long term [...]
Post Date: June 23, 2009 [read more]
Cloud Law: When Technology Blurs Human Values By Ray Garcia
As technology augments and mediates our daily lives what does it mean to be human if functioning and surviving in a digital dependent society necessitates or mandates technology use? What are the human values that emerge from this melding of co-dependent activity? What new power structures emerge from increased dependency on Cloud technology when individuals [...]
Post Date: June 23, 2009 [read more]
Cloud Law- Can it be Engineered? By Ray Garcia
Cloud Law – What is it? Cloud law may be defined as the application of ethical principles using verifiable semantics to achieve the formation and execution of fair and economical processes to govern technology mediated social communications where those processes may act on behalf of the participants on systems for which they may not own [...]
Post Date: June 23, 2009 [read more]
Fostering Growth Through the Legal System by Robert Litan
In 2008, the Kauffman Foundation launched its Law, Innovation, and Growth (LIG) initiative to encourage legal scholars, economists, and other social scientists to examine ways in which the legal system – viewed broadly, and not only in a traditional legal silos (contracts, torts, property, antitrust, and so on) – can be improved to better foster [...]
Post Date: June 23, 2009 [read more]
