Formants and Institutions: Intellectual Meeting Points between Rodolfo Sacco and Douglass North

Global Jurist ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Biglino
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Comparative Law ◽  
Legal Consciousness ◽  
Methodological Pluralism ◽  
Legal Change ◽  
Economic Discourse ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Convergence And Divergence ◽  
The One ◽  
Douglass North

In the present paper, I attempt to unearth what I believe to be an extremely valuable, implicit dialogue between legal and economic discourse through an analysis of the contributions by two leading figures in the fields of comparative law and institutional economics, respectively: Rodolfo Sacco and Douglass North. By closely comparing two apparently far removed intellectual trajectories, I will sketch the manner in which the two scholars come to terms with the concept of change in their respective disciplines. How is legal change, on the one hand, and economic change, on the other hand, explained? I will examine how North addresses the question “why do economies perform differently through space and time?” and review Sacco’s inquires upon convergence and divergence in legal systems with different institutional premises. Once the distinctive features of the two theses have been outlined against the backdrop of the latter questions, I will identify intellectual meeting points, common threads, and parallel tracks drawing the scholars together. In the spirit of methodological pluralism, I will conclude by suggesting that a combined reading of the theses under scrutiny may provide a practical template for thinking about questions of legal change, legal transplants, and the diffusion of legal consciousness.

scholarly journals Kawashima and the changing focus on Japanese legal consciousness: a selective history of the sociology of law in Japan

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 565-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masayuki Murayama
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Small Volume ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Empirical Science ◽  
Legal Consciousness ◽  
Sociology Of Law ◽  
World War ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

AbstractKawashima's well-known arguments on Japanese legal consciousness represent characteristic concerns of Japanese socio-legal scholarship: comparison between Japan and the West on the one hand, and law and practice on the other. Such concerns originated much earlier, before World War II. Suehiro, the early founder, relied on Ehrlich's idea of living law to make law fit social reality. In contrast, Kawashima urged Japanese people to make modern law ‘our living law’. He also argued that Japanese consciousness was the main cause of the small volume of litigation. This thesis became a focus of empirical research by Japanese and foreign scholars. Kawashima played a significant role in establishing the sociology of law as a subject in law. In subsequent empirical studies, Kawashima's thesis has been critically assessed. Yet the sociology of law as an empirical science and the characteristic concerns his work represents are distinctive features of the sociology of law in Japan.

El Prestige: comparativa de los regímenes internacionales de responsabilidad civil

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Raquel Fernández González ◽  
Marcos Íñigo Pérez Pérez
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Rigorous Analysis ◽  
Judicial Process ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Civil Responsibility ◽  
The One ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Prestige

The return of institutions to the main research agenda has highlighted the importance of rules in economic analysis. The New Institutional Economics has allowed a better understanding of the case studies that concern different areas of knowledge, also the one concerning the management of natural resources. In this article, the institutional analysis focuses on the maritime domain, where two large civil liability regimes for pollution coexist (OPA 90-IMO), each in a different geographical area (United States - Europe). Therefore, a comparative analysis is made between the two large regimes of civil responsibility assignment applying them to the Prestige catastrophe. In this way, the allocation and distribution of responsibilities in the investigation and subsequent judicial process of the Prestige is compared with an alternative scenario in which the applicable compensation instruments are governed by the provisions of the Oil Polution Act of 1990 (OPA 90), in order to establish a rigorous analysis on the effects that the different norms can have in the same scenario. In the comparative established in the case of the Prestige, where the responsibilities were solved very slowly in a judicial process with high transaction costs, the application of rules governed by the OPA 90 would not count with such a high degree of imperfection. This is so, since by applying the preponderance of the evidence existing in OPA 90 there would be no mitigation for the presumed culprits. On the other hand, the agents involved in the sinking would not be limited only to the owner, but also that operators or shipowners would be responsible as well. In addition, the amount of compensation would increase when counting in the damage count the personal damages, the taxes without perceiving and the ecological damage caused in a broad sense, damages not computable in the IMO.

Secured transactions and patterns of legal change: the contribution of comparative law

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Fiorentini
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Law ◽  
Legal Change ◽  
Positive Law ◽  
Secured Transactions ◽  
The Many ◽  
Law Making

Abstract The article analyses the many actors and initiatives that, in the last decades, have pursued the goal of worldwide harmonization of secured transaction laws, scrutinizing the achievements and the limits of these experiments. In light of such results, the article also outlines the methodological contribution that comparative law can offer to legal change in the sector of secured transactions law, by way of confronting positive law models with meta-legal elements such as culture, society, economy, law-making processes, and geopolitics.

Distinctive Features in Speech Pathology: Phonology or Phonemics?

1976 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Parker
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Speech Signal ◽  
Speech Pathology ◽  
Direct Relation ◽  
Crucial Point ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Phonological Structure ◽  
Generative Theory ◽  
Speech Science ◽  
The One

Distinctive feature is not a unique concept within linguistic theory. It has two distinct theoretical bases: phonemic theory and generative theory. Phonemic theory assumes a direct correspondence between distinctive features (the elements of phonemes) and the speech signal. Although this assumption can be shown to be incorrect, it seems to be the one most widely held in speech science. Generative theory, on the other hand, assumes no such direct relation and consequently can account for certain linguistic phenomena that phonemic theory cannot. This theory then seems to be preferable to phonemic theory for a featural analysis of misarticulation. However, there is a problem. Chomsky and Halle’s system (generative theory) as it stands does not deal with the link between what it conceives to be the lowest level of linguistic structure (the phonetic matrix) and speech production. Therefore, Chomsky and Halle’s distinctive features cannot be applied fruitfully to all instances of misarticulation. The discrepancy that exists between phonological structure and the speech signal must be accounted for in a theory of speech production. This can be accomplished by recognizing a production matrix below the phonetic matrix, where segments are described in terms of production features. The crucial point is that no one-to-one relationship necessarily exists between distinctive features and production features.

Responsive Regulierung für den homo oeconomicus institutionalis – Ökonomische Verhaltenstheorie in der Verhältnismäßigkeitsprüfung

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kilian Bizer ◽  
Martin Führ
Keyword(s):  
Economic Analysis ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Behavioral Model ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Homo Oeconomicus ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Law ◽  
Principle Of Proportionality ◽  
The One ◽  
Analytical Tools

The starting point of the research project was the hypothesis that the "principle of proportionality", which is fundamental to law, is related to the "economic principle". The resulting methodological similarities were intended to enable a cross-disciplinary bridge to be built, which would allow the findings of economic analysis to be made fruitful for legal issues. This was practically tested in three study areas in order to be able to better classify the performance of the analytical tools. The foundations for interdisciplinary bridge building are found in the rational-choice paradigm. In both disciplines, this paradigm calls for an examination of the relationship between the purpose-means-relations: among the design options under consideration, the one must be selected that is expected to be as (freedom- or resource-) sparing as possible, in other words, the most "waste-free" solution to the control problem.The results of the economic analysis can thus be "translated" in such a way that, within the framework of "necessity", they support the search for control instruments that are equivalent to the objective but less disruptive. supports. The core of the positive economic analysis is the motivational situation of those actors whose behavior is to be influenced by a changed legal framework. In this context, the classical behavioral model of economics proved to be too limited. It therefore had to be developed further in line with the findings of research in institutional economics into homo oeconomicus institutionalis. This behavioral model takes into account not only the consequentialist, strictly situational utility orientation of the model person, but also other factors influencing behavior, including above all those that are institutionally mediated. If one takes the motivational situation of the actors as the starting point for policy-advising design recommendations, it becomes apparent that an understanding of governance dominated by imperative behavioral specifications leads to less favorable results, both in terms of the degree to which goals are achieved and in terms of the freedom-impairing effects, than a mixed-instrument approach oriented toward the model of "responsive regulation." According to this model, the law can no longer simply assume that those subject to the law will "obediently" execute the legal commands. It must ask itself what other factors determine behavior and under what boundary conditions changes can be expected in the direction of the desired behavior. For this reason, too, it must engage with the cognitive program of the behavioral sciences. This linkage opens up new perspectives for interdisciplinary research on the consequences of laws.

scholarly journals IL DIRITTO SOCIETARIO TRA DIRITTO COMPARATO E DIRITTO STRANIERO

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe B. Portale
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Law ◽  
Corporate Law ◽  
Private Company ◽  
General Role ◽  
Foreign Law ◽  
Specific Regulation ◽  
The One ◽  
Substantive Law ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

The article tackles the issues related to the use of comparative law a source of substantive law in a specific legal system, with specific regard to corporate law. Expanding on previous studies on the general role of comparative law in the framework of sources of law (§ 1), the study argues that the comparative argument may be used to regulate purely domestic cases and as well as a play a crucial role in interpreting internal laws (§§ 1.1, 1.2) and analyzes the theoretical foundations of such process (§ 1.3) as well as the problems caused by the application of foreign law by a domestic judge (§ 2). Subsequently, two examples of such usage of the comparative legal argument are provided, drawn from the Italian corporate law experience (§ 3): on the one hand, the introduction of a specific regulation of a simplified private company (società a responsabilità limitata semplificata), representing a circulation of German (Unternehmergesellschaft- UG) and Belgian (société privée a responsabilité limitée starter) models (§ 3.1); on the other hand, the use of comparative law by in the interpretation of the organization structure in the Italian dualistic system (§ 3.2).

scholarly journals Economic cognitive institutions

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 747-765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrico Petracca ◽  
Shaun Gallagher
Keyword(s):  
Mental Models ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Extended Mind ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Shared Mental Models ◽  
Andy Clark ◽  
The Social ◽  
Douglass North

AbstractThis paper introduces the notion of ‘cognitive’ institution and discusses its relevance to institutional economics. Cognitive institutions are conceptually founded on the philosophy of mind notion of extended mind, broadened to also include the distinctly social, institutional, and normative dimensions. Cognitive institutions are defined as institutions that not just allow agents to perform certain cognitive processes in the social domain but, more importantly, without which some of the agents' cognitive processes would not exist or even be possible. The externalist point of view of the extended mind has already had some influence in institutional economics: Arthur Denzau and Douglass North first introduced the notion of institution understood in terms of ‘shared mental models’, and relatedly philosopher Andy Clark introduced the notion of ‘scaffolding institution’. We discuss shared mental models and scaffolding institutions and go a step further by showing that the notion of cognitive institution can capture more fundamental and salient aspects of economic institutions. In particular, we focus on the market as an economic cognitive institution.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document