This article questions the conventional wisdom that bankruptcy and other forms of debt relief unfairly allow the wealthy to retain more resources than the poor. The central insight is that if bankruptcy provides insurance otherwise unavailable because of market failures, an ideal bankruptcy system would embrace significant inequality in post-bankruptcy standards of living. When choosing insurance policies, the wealthy generally choose contracts that ensure their high standards of living. Though others envy these benefits, they do not wish to pay the premiums that these policies require. To the extent that credit markets force a debtor to pay premiums (higher interest rates) for the debt relief she may receive, forcing all debtors to accept the same standard of living after default forces each debtor to accept the same Procrustean insurance with a benefit too meager for some and premiums too dear for others. This argument requires strong assumptions that reasonable minds may reject. However, if one rejects these assumptions, one must question not only the debt relief secured by the once wealthy, but also the debt relief offered to the middle class.
The idea of institutionalism figures prominently in today’s debates about the role of federal courts in American democracy. For example, Chief Justice...
Long lines inside Bodo’s Bagels, congestion on Emmet Street and a seemingly endless stream of runners and scooters zooming past your car in early...
Scores of lawsuits have pushed retirement plan sponsors to shorter, easier-to-navigate menus, but – as Ian Ayres and Quinn Curtis argue in this work –...
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This project is part of ALI’s ongoing revision of the Restatement Second of Torts. The Restatement Second recognized compensatory damages, injunctions...
An important administrative law doctrine developed by the lower federal courts, called remand without vacatur, rests on a mistaken premise. Courts...
At its meeting on January 19 and 20, 2023 the Council approved Council Draft No. 2, containing §§ 5, 11, and 12 of Topic 1, General Rules for...
This Article examines the legal issues underlying hundreds of lawsuits, claiming unjust enrichment or breach of contract, brought by students who paid...
Bankruptcy offers a fresh start that frees individuals from crushing debt burdens. Many insolvent Americans are, however, simply too poor to afford...
Imagine this scenario: A patron shows a reference librarian a letter from an attorney representing the county and asks, “What law authorizes the...
Violations of intimate privacy can be never ending. As long as nonconsensual pornography and deepfake sex videos remain online, privacy violations...
Federal courts are often asked to issue various forms of expedited relief, including stays pending appeal. This Article explores a little examined...
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The supply of human organs for transplantation might seem an unlikely place to begin thinking about entrepreneurship. After all, there is no...
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