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Papers by Dr E. Mackaay

Law and Economics for Civil Law Systems, 2021

Introduction to Law and Economics for Civil Law Systems CAN THE LAW DO EVERYTHING? '… it is a fun... more Introduction to Law and Economics for Civil Law Systems CAN THE LAW DO EVERYTHING? '… it is a fundamental principle with the English Lawyers, that Parliament can do every thing, except making a Woman a Man, or a Man a Woman.' de Lolme wrote in 1771. 1 He meant to express the supremacy of the English Parliament. Two centuries on, medical science has advanced on making a Woman a Man, or a Man a Woman, and the power of Parliament is no longer considered as absolute as it then looked, but is limited by fundamental rights defined in constitutions, charters and international conventions that the courts have the power to apply against acts of Parliament. But de Lolme's saying lends itself to a different reading as well: law can do everything. To bring about any desired social situation, on this view, it suffices to legislate it. To judge by the staggering pace at which legislation is being produced these days, modern governments appear to draw their inspiration from this second reading. A positivist approach to law handily complements this line of thinking. Yet the very fact that such massive amounts of legislation appear to be necessary suggests that citizens are not playing the game; that law does not always produce the effect considered desirable. An example: minimum wage laws. Consider, for instance, legislation setting the minimum wage. It proceeds from the distressing observation that some persons cannot decently live on the wages they are making. The remedy seems simple enough: oblige employers to pay a minimally acceptable wage to anyone they wish to hire. The intention appears generous: help the least well off.

The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law, 2002

An academic directory and search engine.

Le juriste at -il le droit d'ignorer l'économiste? présentation au colloque intitulé A nouvelle é... more Le juriste at -il le droit d'ignorer l'économiste? présentation au colloque intitulé A nouvelle économie, droit nouveau!, tenu les 16 et 17 mai 1986 à l'Université de Droit, d'Economie et des Sciences d'Aix-Marseille paru Revue de la recherche juridique-Droit prospectif (Univ. d'Aix-Marseille) No 1987-2, pp. 419-427

La traduction du nouveau Code civil néerlandais en anglais et en français représentait un grand d... more La traduction du nouveau Code civil néerlandais en anglais et en français représentait un grand défi en raison du caractère systématique et fondateur d'un code, du recours à une terminologie et à une organisation nouvelles et de la longueur des articles. Dans un ...

L'introduction éventuelle, au Québec, de la force exécutoire pour les actes notariés soulève,... more L'introduction éventuelle, au Québec, de la force exécutoire pour les actes notariés soulève, du point de vue économique, deux questions. La première porte sur les effets prévisibles de cette mesure, notamment sur le marché des services juridiques de rédaction d'actes. Du ...

This article seeks to clarify the economic rationale for the civil law of mandate, corresponding ... more This article seeks to clarify the economic rationale for the civil law of mandate, corresponding more or less in the common law to the law of agency, but restricted to acts of legal representation by the agent. Earlier literature suggested that it can be explained as an attempt to counter collusion, or alternatively through the general least-cost avoider logic. The principal difficulty in agency relationships is with supervision. This suggests opportunism as an explanatory factor. We examine the particular features of opportunism that would distinguish it amongst the sources of transaction costs: importance of disclosure rules, presumptions to facilitate evidence in cases of possible covert opportunism, need to sanction covert acts more severely than readily observable ones. The rules of mandate can comfortably be accounted for in the anti-opportunism logic. Most of them fit, equally comfortably, in the more general and straightforward cost-avoidance logic.

Abstract: Good faith appears at once as a fundamental concept in all civil law systems, with a lo... more Abstract: Good faith appears at once as a fundamental concept in all civil law systems, with a long history going back to Roman law, and yet as one whose nature and contents are ill-understood and controversial. The paper is an attempt to find out what new light the ...

Montréal, Éditions Thémis, 1991

RJT ns, 1988

Pour la plupart des juristes contemporains, on connait le droit A la lecture de la Ioi et de la j... more Pour la plupart des juristes contemporains, on connait le droit A la lecture de la Ioi et de la jurisprudence, interpr~ tCes selon les prceptes de la doctrine. Les introductions au droit consacrent, au titre des sources du droit,[a plupart de leurs pages A ces trois sources. II ...

The Commodification of Information. Elkin-Koren, N …, 2002

Just when we thought we knew everything we always wanted to know about intellectual property and ... more Just when we thought we knew everything we always wanted to know about intellectual property and had it properly organised, it explodes again. We thought we had answered the call that information wants to be free and shown that intellectual property is not the divine ...

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, 1999

Jurisprudencia argentina, 2012

Good faith appears at once as a fundamental concept in all civil law systems, with a long history... more Good faith appears at once as a fundamental concept in all civil law systems, with a long history going back to Roman law, and yet as one whose nature and contents are ill-understood and controversial. The paper is an attempt to find out what new light the economic analysis of law can shed on it to help to clarify it.
Good faith is used in two distinct senses, which traditional legal scholarship has identified as subjective and objective. In its subjective sense, good faith as justifiable ignorance of a relevant legal situation refers to having taken adequate precautions against such ignorance, the adequacy being a function of what is at stake and the likelihood of misapprehension. This is reminiscent of the logic of accident and accident prevention law developed in the economic analysis of tort or civil liability law.
In the objective sense of not taking advantage, good faith is analysed as the exact opposite of opportunism. On opportunism there is a reasonably well-developed economic literature. Reciprocal gain, the founding concept of contract and of extensions such as the law of business enterprise, presupposes the absence of opportunism. Good faith in this sense may be said to underlie all of contract law. Yet human nature being what it is, individuals may be tempted by opportunistic acts and their potential victims are led to take costly precautions to guard against it. Law can make itself useful by providing safeguards against opportunism that are less costly than what contracting parties themselves can come up with. Together, these safeguards have to be as wide-ranging as is opportunism itself, yet individually they have to be specific enough to ensure legal certainty. Good faith itself remains as a residual concept, to be applied sparingly, with which to tackle situations on which the specific concepts provide no proper grip. Yet at the same time good faith, being the quintessential anti-opportunism concept, underlies the more specific concepts one finds in the Codes and allows one to see their unity. On a different level, an understanding of opportunism focuses attention on acts and facts that may be relevant in concrete novel situations to be judged by a court, where opportunism may be an issue. Economic analysis of law allows one to make sense of good faith in a meaningful way.

Les Cahiers de droit, 2000

La tradition civiliste se voit souvent reprocher une certaine sclérose résultant d’un nationalism... more La tradition civiliste se voit souvent reprocher une certaine sclérose résultant d’un nationalisme qui cherche trop à se mettre à l’abri d’idées venues d’ailleurs. Un code civil européen peut-il provoquer le renouveau ? Il importe d’en explorer les conditions, qui tiennent, d’une part, au caractère (con)fédéral de l’Union européenne et, d’autre part, à la dynamique même de l’innovation. Le succès relatif des fédérations comme mode de gouvernance est attribuable, comme les économistes l’ont montré, à la division des rôles — et donc de la souveraineté — entre les deux niveaux de gouvernement qui les composent. Il s’agit d’équilibres instables, mais dont les bienfaits proviennent notamment de ce que les États membres se trouvent en concurrence pour offrir la meilleure combinaison de biens collectifs moyennant contribution fiscale. Comme le droit civil fait partie de ces biens collectifs, il importe de transposer la concurrence interétatique sur ce terrain également : la concurrence est...

Law and Economics for Civil Law Systems, 2021

The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law, 2002

An academic directory and search engine.

Montréal, Éditions Thémis, 1991

RJT ns, 1988

The Commodification of Information. Elkin-Koren, N …, 2002

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, 1999

Jurisprudencia argentina, 2012

Les Cahiers de droit, 2000

Edwin Chadwick was a British economist, who led an unusually long life from 1800 till 1890, throu... more Edwin Chadwick was a British economist, who led an unusually long life from 1800 till 1890, through the period of beginning mass flourishing in Britain, with the attendant massive movement to the cities and the urgent need of reform of infrastructure and social services there. He is known for his work on the reform of poor laws and of sanitary services and for his fanatic (21) concern to collect numbers on all manner of economic and social phenomena, in Britain as elsewhere, where he perceived a need for reform. He had the misfortune to live in the same period as economic giants like Bentham (1748-1832), whose utilitarianism he took to heart, David Ricardo (1772–1823) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), the latter a personal friend. Living more or less in their shadow, he was known as a practical reformer, but not as an economic theorist (34) as were the others, and is now largely forgotten. The purpose of the authors of the book is to pull Chadwick out of oblivion and to show that he made more of a contribution than is generally recognised (9). The book credits him with "startling advances in economic theory and their application to then-critical and similar contemporary problems." (ix) Indeed, the book argues that, in stepping outside the orthodoxy of the time, he anticipated, in a practical manner, insights that did not become common ground until the last quarter of the twentieth century: market imperfections, assignment of liabilities to attain the public interest outcome of accident prevention, asymmetric information, externalities, common pool problems, economics of time in markets. (8-9) Why should the modern reader be interested in this? There is of course the matter of setting the historical record straight. More important, if the overview shows undervalued early insights, the modern reader might want to revisit Chadwick's quite voluminous writings in search of more hidden nuggets, some perhaps not even recognised as yet in economic theory. This multifaceted purpose leads to a multifaceted book.
In the concluding chapter, the authors summarise the points at which in their eyes Chadwick's views were distinctly modern. They recapture in modern language what was set out in more historical detail in the earlier chapters. On balance, they have done a sterling job of positioning Chadwick amongst his contemporaries and showing how he often correctly stepped away from the prevailing orthodoxy and anticipated changes to come. Assuredly he deserves a place in history. Should we modern readers feel compelled to revisit his writings in search of undervalued treasures? The few examples given above fail to be entirely convincing in their argument that Chadwick fully anticipated our way of thinking in law and economics a century and half on. So each of us will have to judge whether a treasure hunt would be worthwhile. In the meantime, anyone interested in economic history should have this little book on the shelf.

History of Economic Ideas, 2023

Posner's book reached Canada (the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law) in 1976 and was carried ... more Posner's book reached Canada (the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law) in 1976 and was carried to Montreal, and into French, in 1978. The challenge there was to bring it into the legal discussion in France, still the dominant sphere for the Civil Code tradition. To assess the book's impact, the article looks first at how the book took a prime spot in the US, outrunning the earlier attempts at bringing social sciences to law, then how it had to take a much longer and more circuitous route in France to reach a comparable position there.

Cahiers de propriété intellectuelle, 2022

ABSTRACT Intellectual property is meant to stimulate creativity by promising creators a right to ... more ABSTRACT
Intellectual property is meant to stimulate creativity by promising creators a right to seek reward for their creative efforts, while ensuring that the ideas thus found circulate as freely as possible. Does it fulfil this mission? Does it do it better than other means of stimulation? Is it indispensable as a means of stimulation? The article provides a quick overview of empirical research over the past half-century aimed at answering these questions. It points to many areas where “IP without IP” (open content, open science, open source, creative commons) is working well, yet outlines the ongoing debate on the limits of the formula. It then discusses research on prizes and supply contracts as stimuli of creativity as against intellectual property. Prizes and supply contracts presuppose that one can specify in advance the creation that one seeks to bring about. Historically, prizes have often been used as enticement by the elite for the elite, to the detriment of non-elite creative craftsmen. Intellectual property stands out on these two levels, being decentralised and open as to the creators targeted (non-elitist), as to the creation aimed for (no predetermination) and as to the creator's reward (market test). Is intellectual property fulfilling its mission? Historical research touching on copyright shows a clear stimulating effect at the time when it was first instituted, but no effect or even a slowdown following the strengthening of the right subsequently. Very recent research on music shows an increased stimulatory effect just when rampant "piracy" had effectively weakened copyright. This suggests that consideration needs to be given to whether we have pushed the scope and breadth of intellectual property too far, causing a slowdown in creativity that is difficult to detect so long as the legal regime remains unchanged.

RÉSUMÉ
La propriété intellectuelle vise à stimuler la créativité en promettant aux créateurs un droit permettant de chercher récompense de leurs efforts, tout en assurant que les idées ainsi trouvées circulent aussi librement que possible. Remplit-elle cette mission ? Le fait-elle mieux que d’autres moyens de stimulation ? Est-elle indispensable comme moyen de stimulation? L’article propose un aperçu des recherches empiriques au cours du dernier demi-siècle visant à répondre à ces questions. Il fait état de nombreux domaines où la « pi sans pi » (contenu ouvert, science ouverte, open source, creative commons) fonctionne bien, tout en exposant le débat en cours sur les limites de la formule. Il aborde ensuite les recherches sur les prix et les contrats d’approvisionnement comme moyens de stimuler la créativité par rapport à la propriété intellectuelle. Les prix et les contrats d’approvisionnement présupposent que l’on puisse préciser d’avance la création que l’on cherche à faire surgir. Historiquement, les prix ont souvent été utilisés comme appâts par l’élite pour l’élite, au détriment des artisans créateurs non-membres de l’élite. La propriété intellectuelle se distingue sur ces deux plans, étant décentralisée et ouverte quant aux créateurs visés (non élitiste), quant à la création suscitée (pas de prédétermination) et quant à la récompense du créateur (test du marché). La propriété intellectuelle remplit- elle bien sa mission ? Des recherches historiques touchant le droit d’auteur montrent un net effet stimulateur lors de la première institution, mais un effet moindre, ou même un freinage, lors du renforcement du droit subséquemment. Des recherches tout récentes dans le domaine de la musique montrent un effet stimulateur accru au moment même où le « piratage » rampant avait affaibli le droit d’auteur dans les faits. Une réflexion s’impose sur la question de savoir si nous n’avons pas poussé trop loin la portée et l’étendue de la propriété intellectuelle, provoquant ainsi un ralentissement de la créativité difficile à déceler tant que le régime juridique demeure inchangé.

Le droit d'auteur et la renaissance digitale, 2019

One fascinating story in intellectual property (IP) is in the music area over the past half centu... more One fascinating story in intellectual property (IP) is in the music area over the past half century. Copyright says you may not pass on copies. As the internet took off, it became ever easier to pass on (share) music on the internet. That ended up in Napster (with 80 M users throughout the world being connected). Napster was shut by the American courts, but the sharing idea turned out to be unstoppable. When lots of music is (illegally or not) shared, it is almost like a natural experiment in a reduction of copyright. The straightforward incentive theory of copyright suggests that the stronger the right, the greater the incentive to create original works and the more of them you will see, and, conversely, the weaker the right, the narrower the incentive and the fewer new creations you should see. That idea can be tested in the period 1961-1999 when industry revenues increased fivefold. One can see when the greatest creativity occurred in terms of new works and works that continue to be considered classics a quarter-century later. For the period 1999-2015, with lots of piracy, if the straightforward incentive theory is correct, one would expect a drop in creativity (volume as well as the level of creativity in new music). Of course, music being widely available, there is a welfare gain for consumers. Will consumers go legit if legal, but easy and affordable means of acquiring music are offered? That too can be tested. The text discusses the answers found to all these questions, highlighting the considerable ingenuity displayed to get to the data for those answers.
Résumé Une histoire fascinante de la propriété intellectuelle (PI) concerne le domaine de la musique. Le droit d'auteur dit que vous ne pouvez pas transmettre de copies à d'autres. Avec le développement fulgurant de l'Internet, il est devenu de plus en plus facile de transmettre (partager) de la musique sur Internet. Cela a donné lieu à Napster (connectant 80 millions de mélomanes à travers le monde). Napster a été fermé par ordre de la justice américaine, mais l'idée de partage s'est avérée imparable. Quand beaucoup de musique est (illégalement ou non) partagée, c'est presque comme une expérience naturelle de réduction du droit d'auteur. La théorie incitative simple du droit d'auteur suggère que plus le droit est fort, plus l'incitation à créer des œuvres originales est grande et plus vous en verrez, et, inversement, plus le droit est faible, plus l'incitation est étroite et moins vous devriez voir créer de nouvelles créations. Cette idée peut être testée, d’abord au cours de la période 1961-1999, lorsque les revenus de l'industrie ont été multipliés par cinq. On peut observer à quel moment la plus grande créativité s'est produite en termes d'œuvres nouvelles et d'œuvres qui continuent d'être considérées comme des classiques un quart de siècle plus tard. Pour la période 1999-2015, avec beaucoup de piratage, si la théorie simple de l'incitation est exacte, on s'attendrait à une baisse de la créativité (volume ainsi que le niveau de créativité dans la nouvelle musique). Bien entendu, la musique étant largement disponible, il y a un gain de bien-être pour les consommateurs. Les consommateurs se mettront-ils dans la légalité pour la consommation de leur musique si des moyens simples et abordables d'acquérir de la musique légalement sont proposés ? Cela aussi peut être testé. Le texte discute les réponses trouvées à ces questions, en mettant en lumière l'ingéniosité considérable affichée pour obtenir les données pour ces réponses.