Jim Chen's SSRN abstracts

Pax Mercatoria: Globalization as a Second Chance at ‘Peace for Our Time', http://www.ssrn.com/abstract=1555302 (February 20, 2010)

This Essay completes a scholarly cycle in which I have defended free trade and international economic cooperation against charges that globalization will harm the environment and drain jobs from the high-wage economies of western Europe, Japan, and the United States. The demolition of geographic and social barriers since the end of the Cold War has delivered not only material wealth but also physical tranquility, political stability, and personal freedom to vast portions of the world's populatio

Code, Custom, and Contract: The Uniform Commercial Code as Law Merchant, http://www.ssrn.com/abstract=1555220 (February 20, 2010)

Rooted in ancient and medieval mercantile experiences, the law of commercial transactions draws from private agreements, customs and usages, and legislation. In this century, three sources – contract, custom and code – have transcended national laws and legal institutions. Codification has occurred on an international scale. In particular, the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and Incoterms govern many international commercial transactions.

Feudalism Unmodified: Discourses on Farms and Firms, http://www.ssrn.com/abstract=1418690 (June 12, 2009)

The regulation of firm size and structure, in agriculture and industry, assumes that certain forms of market structure and industrial organization are economically or socially pernicious. Large farms and large firms, according to this view, are reservoirs of economic and social evils. The law often targets these purported evils by restricting the formation and structure of firms. Structural regulation exploits the connection between the internal firm organization and overall market structure.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, http://www.ssrn.com/abstract=1418709 (June 12, 2009)

The Bluebook has transcended its role as a legal citation manual. As the citation for the flagship law reviews at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Penn, the Bluebook acts as the contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade that keeps its publishers solvent. As the condensed expression of the familial relationship between legal academia and student-edited law reviews, the Bluebook represents the prenuptial contract between the professors and the journals. Finally, as the unofficial U

Creamskimming and Competition, http://www.ssrn.com/abstract=1395554 (April 26, 2009)

The concept of “creamskimming” arises with regularity in the law of regulated industries. As a rhetorical weapon, the term “creamskimming” readily conjures images of the sort of putatively destructive competition that regulatory commissions are charged with patrolling. As a result, allegations of creamskimming have become a standard weapon in the legal arsenal of incumbent firms seeking to resist competitive entry. At an extreme, incumbent firms will characterize all forms of competitive entr