Larry Ribstein's Federalism Scholarship and the Unfinished Agenda

Abstract

Larry Ribstein and his co-authors broke new ground in examining jurisdictional competition and private choice of law. Going beyond corporate law bounds, they examined jurisdictional competition for other forms of entities, and found competition driving efficient uniformity. The more challenging area they addressed was private choice of law in contracts. While much of their work is enlightening, there is much left to be done in examining the mechanisms of efficiency in private agreements. Law are complex bundles of rights and obligations, often heterogeneous, in a market without explicit prices. While the mechanisms of adoption of business laws are well documented, difficult questions of bounded rationality remain in the area of private choice of law.

Keywords: jurisdictional competition, choice of law, efficient law rational choice, bounded rationality, products without prices

JEL Classification: K22, B25, D72