Information for Students

This workshop will feature presentations from scholars conducting research in law & economics. Background in Law and Economics or in Economics is helpful, but not necessary. Workshop sessions will be devoted to presentation and discussion of papers.  Papers will be posted on the course website and distributed in class the week before they are presented by the authors.

Before each workshop session (starting with the September 11 session), students will be required to submit written comments on the paper to be presented through the course website. The written comments should take a critical look at the paper or at one of its main arguments. The goal of the exercise is to help the author to improve the paper. You may question the validity of an argument; point to an overlooked implication or extension; debate the empirical validity of claims or assumptions; relate the material to corroborating or conflicting ideas; suggest analogies to other issues or problems; or offer any other reaction or insight that would be helpful to the author. You should NOT merely summarize an idea that appears in the paper. You should also avoid generic types of criticism against an economic approach to the problem the author explores; those arguments can always be made and are neither novel nor helpful. Rather, you should focus on noteworthy or problematic aspects unique to the specific study being presented.

Each comment should begin with an underlined, one-sentence summary of the main idea pursued in the comment. These headline-summaries should be articulated in the form of a question. You should then follow with a discussion elaborating on this idea/question. Each week you should submit 1-3 comments, for a total submission of 600-900 words. You may skip one week of comments--in other words, you need only make 11 submissions although there will be 12 presentations total. Copies of each of your comments will be presented to the authors, although they may not have a chance to read them before the session.

Please submit your comment(s) via the course website by midnight on the Monday before the workshop. You should post your submission in two separate places: first, in the "assignments" section, so that the instructors may read it and give you private feedback; and second, in the appropriate folder in the "discussion" section, where it will be viewable by other workshop participants and speakers. Please do NOT post your assignment in pdf format. A Word or WordPerfect format is preferred (it allows us to insert comments and feedback into your file and send it back to you marked.) Indeed, you will receive our reactions to your hand-in before the workshop, with suggestions on how to present your comments during the class discussion.

You should be prepared for class discussion, including in the week in which you do not submit comments. In preparing for class, you may also wish to read each other's comments. You are strongly encouraged to present your comments during the discussion.

There is no additional written requirement for this seminar beyond the weekly hand-ins. The final grade will reflect the weekly grades on the hand-ins, the trajectory of improvement that these grades reflect, as well as (and significantly) the quality of your contribution to the discussions in class.