The editors of the Harvard Law Review respectfully dedicate the December 2007 issue to Professor Clark Byse.
Clark Byse
- Volume 121
- Issue 2
- December 2007
Topic:
November 16, 2009
More from this Issue
-
Equal Opportunity and Inheritance Taxation
Vol. 121 No. 2 Equality of opportunity is understood to be one of the bedrock principles supporting the taxation of inheritance. The familiar idea is that inherited wealth offers an unjustified head start for some individuals at the expense of others. In political theory, this principle is closely identified with the branch of liberalism known as resource equality. But the resource equality ideal has not been fully translated into the legal literature. The major legal writings on inheritance taxation use the term “equal opportunity” quite generally and often blend equal opportunity with goals that are distinct, like wealth equalization. This Article revisits the topic of inheritance taxation -
Timing Rules and Legal Institutions
Vol. 121 No. 2 Constitutional and legislative restrictions on the timing of legislation and regulation are ubiquitous, but these “timing rules” have received little attention in the legal literature. Yet the timing of a law can be just as important as its content. The timing of a law determines whether its benefits are created sooner or later. This determines how the costs and benefits are spread across time, and hence how they are distributed to the advantage or disadvantage of different private groups, citizens, and governmental officials. We argue that timing rules are, and should be, used to reduce agency problems within the legislature and between the legislature and the public, and to mitigate deliberative pathologies. -
The Case for Compulsory Voting in the United States
Vol. 121 No. 2