Jenny B. Wahl

The Jurisprudence of American Slave Sales

An analysis of all appellate cases involving slave-sales reveals that southern courts helped minimize the costs of trading in slaves. Slave-sales law also surpassed other contemporaneous commercial law in sophistication. Why? Greater information gaps between slave buyers and sellers called for more complex institutional support. The enormous property value embodied by slaves also led to more litigation, greater need for settled law, and a more even match of power between plaintiff and defendant. Additionally, legal rules surrounding slave sales substituted for the employment law governing free-labor markets.

From Riches to Riches: Intergenerational Transfers and the Evidence from Estate Tax Returns

Intergenerational transfers of wealth and ability can influence the distribution of wealth. This research examines the empirical relationships among intergenerational variables and cross-sectional wealth distribution. Copyright (c) 2003 by the Southwestern Social Science Association.

Debt's Dominion: A History of Bankruptcy Law in America. By David A. Skeel, Jr. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001. Pp. xi. 281.

Bankruptcy law is the bacteria of the market economy. When a company dies, bankruptcy law figures out how to break down what remains, bring the productive parts back to life, and dispose of the rest. Some consider the market economy a jungle; bankruptcy law simply helps clear the jungle floor.