Empirical Comparative Law

Spamann, Holger

doi:10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-110413-030807

Cited by 53 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 156 publications

(80 reference statements)

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“…Our finding has also relevant implications for Legal Origins Theory: critics have argued that legal origins are "merely a proxy" for political, historical or social developments that occurred as the legislation was being developed (La Porta et al, 2008;Spamann, 2015). In clear contrast to this, organ donation laws did not appear until well into the second half of the 20th century -organ transplants were not feasible in a safe and systematic way until the 1970s.…”

Section: Our Data Set Includes All Countries Present In the Internatimentioning

confidence: 79%

Legal Origins, Religion and Health Outcomes: A Cross-Country Comparison of Organ Donation Laws

et al. 2018

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This paper investigates what drives countries to legislate presumed consent-making citizens organ donors by default unless they opt out-instead of explicit consent. A wide range of economic, social, political, institutional, and demographic variables is used. Results reveal the following: (i) civil law predicts presumed consent, which uncovers a mechanism by which an institution that long pre-dates transplantation medicine has an impact on current health outcomes; (ii) Protestantism predicts explicit consent; and (iii) higher pro-social behavior decreases the likelihood of presumed consent. The plausible mechanisms and implications are discussed.

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Section: Our Data Set Includes All Countries Present In the Internatimentioning

confidence: 79%

Legal Origins, Religion and Health Outcomes: A Cross-Country Comparison of Organ Donation Laws

et al. 2018

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“…). Yet, while quantitative studies in comparative law can narrow down plausible theories, causal inference is problematic due to endogeneity (Elkins et al 2009, p. 89;Klick 2010;Spamann 2015).…”

Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Do Rights to Resistance Discipline the Elites? An Experiment on the Threat of Overthrow

2020

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The threat of overthrow stabilizes a constitution because it disciplines the elites. This is the main rationale behind rights to resistance. In this paper, we test this conjecture experimentally. We model a society in which players can produce wealth by solving a coordination problem. Coordination is facilitated through a pre-game status-ranking. Compliance with the status hierarchy yields an efficient yet inequitable payoff distribution, in which a player's wealth is determined by her pre-game status. Between treatments, we vary (a) whether overthrows-which reset the status-ranking via collective disobedienceare possible or not, and (b) whether voluntary redistributive transfers-which high-status players can use to appease the low-status players-are available or not. In contrast to established thinking we find that, on average, the threat of overthrow does not have a stabilizing effect as high-status players fail to provide sufficient redistribution to prevent overthrows. However, if an overthrow brings generous players into high-status positions, groups stabilize and prosper. This suggests an alternative rationale for rights to resistance.

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“…The main advantage of a lab experiment is identification from random assignment to treatment. This advantage is particularly valuable for comparative law since observational data from different legal orders hardly ever makes it possible to isolate causal effects (Spamann 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Committing the English and the Continental Way - An Experiment

Engel

Schmelzer

2017

SSRN Journal

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On the doctrinal surface, there is a deep divide between common and continental law when it comes to the origin of contractual obligations. Under continental law, in principle a unilateral promise suffices. Common law by contrast requires consideration. When it comes to deciding cases, the divide is much less pronounced. But for the most part the law does not govern people's lives through adjudication. It matches or molds their moral intuitions. We test these intuitions in the lab. If consideration is required, participants believe that all participants make more ambitious promises. But they themselves make a more cautious promise. These two effects cancel out, so that promises are not more likely to be kept with consideration.

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Empirical Comparative Law

Abstract: I review the empirical comparative law literature with an emphasis on quantitative work. After situating the field and surveying its main applications to date, I turn to methodological issues.

Cited by 53 publications

References 156 publications

Legal Origins, Religion and Health Outcomes: A Cross-Country Comparison of Organ Donation Laws

Legal Origins, Religion and Health Outcomes: A Cross-Country Comparison of Organ Donation Laws

Do Rights to Resistance Discipline the Elites? An Experiment on the Threat of Overthrow

Committing the English and the Continental Way - An Experiment

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