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Contribution to Book
Producing Law for Innovation
Rules for Growth (2011)
  • Gillian K Hadfield, University of Southern California Law
Abstract

In this contribution to the forthcoming Rules for Growth prepared by the Kauffman Task Force on Law, Innovation and Growth, I first discuss why we need to think of legal infrastructure as economic infrastructure requiring focused economic policymaking, what is wrong with our existing legal infrastructure and why we need to change our modes of legal production. I then set out a vision of what greater reliance on market-based production of legal infrastructure could look like. Finally, I suggest some concrete steps that policymakers can take to move us toward a more open, competitive system of legal production. These include 1) opening up access to the provision of legal services, such as by establishing a federal licensing regime that exempts providers from state-based regulation by the bar and state supreme courts and reduces restrictions on the ownership and management of legal providers; 2) establishing the public law framework necessary to enable competitive private legal entities supplying legal rules (for corporate governance and commercial contracting, for example) to emerge; and 3) reducing barriers to international trade in legal services.

Keywords
  • markets for lawyers,
  • legal markets,
  • legal profession,
  • legal regulation,
  • law and growth,
  • law and development
Disciplines
Publication Date
2011
Editor
R. Litan, et al.
Publisher
Kauffman Foundation
Citation Information
Gillian K Hadfield. "Producing Law for Innovation" Kansas CityRules for Growth (2011)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/ghadfield/38/