In recent decades, states and municipalities have increasingly relied on court fines and fees to overcome budget shortfalls. Existing court debt literature underscores the varied and adverse impacts of court debt, as well as the disproportionate incidence of such debt on people of color and poor people of all races. Yet few pieces of scholarship directly link increased imposition of court fines and fees to decreased dependence on traditional progressive taxes. This essay aims to fill the gap. Using the law and political economy (LPE) framework, this paper argues that increased imposition of court debt derives from heightened antitax sentiment and the erosion of the state and local tax bases. In the process, this essay contends that both the tax and court debt systems reflect and exacerbate racial inequality. In advancing the above argument, this essay makes three broad conceptual claims. First, by revisiting the history of tax revolts, and underscoring that these movements precipitated increased reliance on court fines and fees, it demonstrates that antitax sentiment reflects racial, not merely economic, anxieties. Second, the essay establishes that court debt is an inferior revenue source as compared to traditional taxes when evaluated using either traditional tax policy metrics or racial justice principles. Third, drawing from existing tax literature, this essay argues for several policy and community-based interventions to cease reliance on court debt and revitalize progressive taxes. As such, this essay provides a conceptual framework for advancing the LPE movement’s mission.
{"title":"Stripping the Gears of White Supremacy: A Call to Abate Reliance on Court Fines & Fees and Revitalize State and Local Taxation","authors":"Hayley Hahn","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3875617","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3875617","url":null,"abstract":"In recent decades, states and municipalities have increasingly relied on court fines and fees to overcome budget shortfalls. Existing court debt literature underscores the varied and adverse impacts of court debt, as well as the disproportionate incidence of such debt on people of color and poor people of all races. Yet few pieces of scholarship directly link increased imposition of court fines and fees to decreased dependence on traditional progressive taxes. This essay aims to fill the gap. Using the law and political economy (LPE) framework, this paper argues that increased imposition of court debt derives from heightened antitax sentiment and the erosion of the state and local tax bases. In the process, this essay contends that both the tax and court debt systems reflect and exacerbate racial inequality. In advancing the above argument, this essay makes three broad conceptual claims. First, by revisiting the history of tax revolts, and underscoring that these movements precipitated increased reliance on court fines and fees, it demonstrates that antitax sentiment reflects racial, not merely economic, anxieties. Second, the essay establishes that court debt is an inferior revenue source as compared to traditional taxes when evaluated using either traditional tax policy metrics or racial justice principles. Third, drawing from existing tax literature, this essay argues for several policy and community-based interventions to cease reliance on court debt and revitalize progressive taxes. As such, this essay provides a conceptual framework for advancing the LPE movement’s mission.","PeriodicalId":107457,"journal":{"name":"LSN: Other Parties (Attorneys; Witnesses; etc.) (Topic)","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125148069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We surveyed academic economists on their experiences and perceptions of legal consulting. Nearly two-thirds have consulting experience and 40 percent have consulted within the last five years. Base hourly rates average $244, with a median of $200. Women are less likely than men to have served as consultants and charge lower rates than comparable men, but there are few differences by gender in willingness to consult. Women report substantially more negative bias and are less likely to consult in complex cases or to have a high profile role in litigation.
{"title":"Gender and the Consulting Academic Economist","authors":"Alison F. Del Rossi, J. Hersch","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3538391","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3538391","url":null,"abstract":"We surveyed academic economists on their experiences and perceptions of legal consulting. Nearly two-thirds have consulting experience and 40 percent have consulted within the last five years. Base hourly rates average $244, with a median of $200. Women are less likely than men to have served as consultants and charge lower rates than comparable men, but there are few differences by gender in willingness to consult. Women report substantially more negative bias and are less likely to consult in complex cases or to have a high profile role in litigation.","PeriodicalId":107457,"journal":{"name":"LSN: Other Parties (Attorneys; Witnesses; etc.) (Topic)","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126764908","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The effect of attorney experience in civil litigation has not been causally identified because attorneys everywhere are not randomly assigned to clients and detailed measures of jurist experience have not been available. Using a unique data set from Taiwan, we measured attorney experience by either the total number of civil cases they have represented from 2000 to 2014 or their number of years in practice. We argue that theoretically, there was hardly any case selection by litigants and litigators in Taiwan’s flat-fee attorney market. Combining these data with another unique data set we compiled from pain and suffering damages lawsuits regarding personal injury in weighted ordinary least square models after full matching and coarsened exact matching, we find that experienced plaintiff attorneys claim more than inexperienced ones.
{"title":"Knowledge in Youth Is Wisdom in Age: An Empirical Study of Attorney Experience in Torts Litigation","authors":"Yun-chien Chang, Kong-Pin Chen, C. Lin","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2628171","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2628171","url":null,"abstract":"The effect of attorney experience in civil litigation has not been causally identified because attorneys everywhere are not randomly assigned to clients and detailed measures of jurist experience have not been available. Using a unique data set from Taiwan, we measured attorney experience by either the total number of civil cases they have represented from 2000 to 2014 or their number of years in practice. We argue that theoretically, there was hardly any case selection by litigants and litigators in Taiwan’s flat-fee attorney market. Combining these data with another unique data set we compiled from pain and suffering damages lawsuits regarding personal injury in weighted ordinary least square models after full matching and coarsened exact matching, we find that experienced plaintiff attorneys claim more than inexperienced ones.","PeriodicalId":107457,"journal":{"name":"LSN: Other Parties (Attorneys; Witnesses; etc.) (Topic)","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125383052","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The 2009 third energy package puts in place a hybrid system, delegating regulatory and enforcement powers to public national regulators and to private transmission system operators. These bodies are organized in networks which are coordinated and monitored by the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER). ACER acts mainly through instruments deprived of legally binding force, or soft law. These instruments, enacted ‘outside the legislative arena of democratic politics’ (Eberlein: 2008), potentially escape accountability, transparency, and legitimacy checks. Moreover, the legal effects of such instruments are uncertain, and vary from instrument to instrument, thus creating clarity concerns. ACER’s soft law instruments range from practically binding (the framework guidelines that form the basis of network codes) to particularly weak forms of soft law such as the non-binding guidance on the definitions set out in the REMIT Regulation. In this context, and in the absence of case law in this regard, the present paper offers a doctrinal analysis of all the categories of soft law instruments issued by ACER and of their potential for justiciability. It argues that soft law issued by ACER can have in practice important effects, and that, in the absence of clear judicial oversight from the European Courts, it can have a negative impact from a rule of law perspective. The discussion will be placed against the background of the recent Winter Package, and the proposals to strengthen the role of the Agency will be evaluated in order to draw broader conclusions as to the link between increased powers and accountability.
{"title":"Too Weak to Be Controlled: Judicial Review of ACER Soft Law","authors":"Oana Stefan, M. Petri","doi":"10.1093/YEL/YEY009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/YEL/YEY009","url":null,"abstract":"The 2009 third energy package puts in place a hybrid system, delegating regulatory and enforcement powers to public national regulators and to private transmission system operators. These bodies are organized in networks which are coordinated and monitored by the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER). ACER acts mainly through instruments deprived of legally binding force, or soft law. These instruments, enacted ‘outside the legislative arena of democratic politics’ (Eberlein: 2008), potentially escape accountability, transparency, and legitimacy checks. Moreover, the legal effects of such instruments are uncertain, and vary from instrument to instrument, thus creating clarity concerns. ACER’s soft law instruments range from practically binding (the framework guidelines that form the basis of network codes) to particularly weak forms of soft law such as the non-binding guidance on the definitions set out in the REMIT Regulation. In this context, and in the absence of case law in this regard, the present paper offers a doctrinal analysis of all the categories of soft law instruments issued by ACER and of their potential for justiciability. It argues that soft law issued by ACER can have in practice important effects, and that, in the absence of clear judicial oversight from the European Courts, it can have a negative impact from a rule of law perspective. The discussion will be placed against the background of the recent Winter Package, and the proposals to strengthen the role of the Agency will be evaluated in order to draw broader conclusions as to the link between increased powers and accountability.","PeriodicalId":107457,"journal":{"name":"LSN: Other Parties (Attorneys; Witnesses; etc.) (Topic)","volume":"71 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134125363","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：