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How Economics Can Help Courts Devise Legal Standards for Dismissing Claims
and
Summary Judgment

Wednesday, April 5, 2006 

There is a broad consensus in support of laws that prohibit businesses from engaging in certain behavior and providing compensation to victims. Examples include antitrust laws that prohibit price fixing and employment laws that ban race discrimination. Does this mean that everyone who feels they have been injured by a violation deserves their day in court? The legal system has recognized that the answer is clearly “no” but the courts have reached varying views on when plaintiffs should be denied the opportunity to pursue their cases.  The AEI-Brookings Joint Center has asked two leading scholars to help provide a framework for identifying when the social benefits of continuing towards a courtroom battle justify the social costs. 


AGENDA

Wednesday, April 5th, 2006 
Noon – 1:45 p.m.
Willard Inter-Continental Washington
1401 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington D.C. 20004 

Noon Registration and Lunch
12:15 p.m. Welcome
ROBERT HAHN, AEI-Brookings Joint Center
Presentation
KEITH HYLTON, Boston University
Discussant
JONATHAN BAKER, American University

1:45 p.m.
Adjournment

For more information, please contact Sasha Gentling at 202.862.5903 or [email protected].

Biographies

Jonathan Baker is professor of law, specializing in antitrust, economic regulation and law and economics, at the American University Washington College of Law. From 1995 to 1998, Professor Baker served as the director of the Bureau of Economics at the Federal Trade Commission. Previously, he worked as a senior economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, special assistant to the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economics in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, an assistant professor at Dartmouth's Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, an attorney advisor to the Acting Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, and an antitrust lawyer in private practice. Professor Baker is a member of the Council of the American Bar Association’s Section of Antitrust Law. He is the co-author of an antitrust casebook and a past editorial chair of Antitrust Law Journal. Professor Baker has published widely in the fields of antitrust law and policy and empirical industrial organization economics. He received a J.D. from Harvard and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University.


Robert Hahn is co-founder and executive director of the American Enterprise Institute-Brookings Joint Center and a resident scholar at AEI. Previously, he worked for the Council of Economic Advisers. He also has served on the faculties of Harvard University and Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Hahn frequently contributes to leading scholarly journals and general-interest periodicals, including The American Economic Review, The Yale Law Journal, Science, and the New York Times. He is the author of Reviving Regulatory Reform: A Global Perspective (AEI-Brookings Joint Center, 2000) and In Defense of the Economic Analysis of Regulation (AEI-Brookings Joint Center, 2005). In addition, Dr. Hahn is cofounder of the Community Preparatory School­­­­, an inner-city middle school in Providence, Rhode Island, that provides opportunities for disadvantaged youth to achieve their full potential.


Keith Hylton is Professor of Law and Paul J. Liacos Scholar in Law at the Boston University School of Law. Widely recognized in the areas of law and economics, Professor Hylton has published more than 50 articles in American law journals and peer-reviewed law and economics journals. His textbook, Antitrust Law: Economic Theory and Common Law Evolution, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2003. Professor Hylton joined the Boston University School of Law faculty in 1995 after teaching for six years and receiving tenure at Northwestern University School of Law. He teaches courses in antitrust, torts and labor law.  Professor Hylton is Co-Editor of Competition Policy International, and has served as Editor of the Social Science Research Network’s Torts, Products Liability and Insurance Law Abstracts since 1999. He also is a former chair of the Section on Antitrust and Economic Regulation of the American Association of Law Schools, a former chair of the Section on Torts and Compensation Systems of the American Association of Law Schools, a former director of the American Law and Economics Association, and a member of the American Law Institute.