@article{SchaeferWulf2014, author = {Sch{\"a}fer, Hans-Bernd and Wulf, Alexander J.}, title = {Jurists, Clerics, and Merchants: the Rise of Learned Law in Medieval Europe and its Impact on Economic Growth}, series = {Journal of Empirical Legal Studies}, volume = {11}, journal = {Journal of Empirical Legal Studies}, number = {2}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0298-opus4-4589}, pages = {266 -- 300}, year = {2014}, abstract = {English Abstract: Between the years 1200 and 1600 economic development in Catholic Europe gained momentum. By the end of this period per capita income levels were well above the income levels in all other regions of the world. We relate this unique development to the resurrection of Roman law, the rise of Canon law and the establishment of law as a scholarly and scientific discipline taught in universities. We test two competing hypotheses on the impact of these processes on economic growth in medieval Europe. The first conjecture is that the spread of substantive Roman law was conducive to the rise of commerce and economic growth. The second and competing conjecture is that growth occurred not as a result of the reception of substantive Roman law but rather because of the rational, scientific and systemic features of Roman and Canon law and the training of jurists in the newly established universities (Verwissenschaftlichung). This gave the law throughout Europe an innovative flexibility, which also influenced merchant law (lex mercatoria), and customary law. Using data on the population of more than 200 European cities as a proxy for per capita income we find that an important impact for economic development was not primarily the content of Roman law, but the rise of law faculties in universities and the emergence of a legal method developed by glossators and commentators in their interpretation and systematization of the sources of Roman law (Corpus Juris Civilis, Digests) and Canon law. The endeavor to extract general normative conclusions from these sources led to abstraction, methodology, and the rise of law as a scholarly discipline. Wherever law faculties were founded anywhere in Europe jurists learned new legal concepts and skills which were unknown before and conducive for doing business. Spanish Abstract: Entre 1200 y 1600 el desarrollo econ{\´o}mico en la Europa cat{\´o}lica experiment{\´o} un notable impulso. Al final de este periodo los niveles de ingreso per c{\´a}pita se encontraban bien por encima de aquellos correspondientes a otras regiones del mundo. Nosotros relacionamos este {\´u}nico desarrollo con el resucitar del Derecho Romano, el ascenso del Derecho Can{\´o}nico y el establecimiento del Derecho como una disciplina escol{\´a}stica y cient{\´i}fica ense{\~n}ada en las universidades. En esta ocasi{\´o}n, ponemos a prueba dos hip{\´o}tesis concurrentes respecto del impacto que estos procesos han tenido sobre el crecimiento econ{\´o}mico en Europa medieval. La primera de estas es que la propagaci{\´o}n del Derecho Romano ha sido conducente al aumento del comercio y del crecimiento econ{\´o}mico. La segunda y concurrente hip{\´o}tesis es que el crecimiento no se dio como resultado de la recepci{\´o}n del Derecho Romano, sino como consecuencia de ser este un Derecho, junto con el Can{\´o}nico, de naturaleza racional, cient{\´i}fica y sistem{\´a}tica; y tambi{\´e}n como resultado del entrenamiento en estas disciplinas de los juristas en la universidades que recientemente se hab{\´i}an establecido (Verwissenschaftligung). Conjuntamente esto dio al Derecho a trav{\´e}s de Europa una flexibilidad innovadora, la cual tambi{\´e}n influy{\´o} el Derecho Mercante (lex mercatoria), y el Derecho Consuetudinario. Utilizando datos sobre la poblaci{\´o}n en m{\´a}s de 200 ciudades europeas como proxy del ingreso per c{\´a}pita, podemos observar que un importante impacto sobre el desarrollo econ{\´o}mico no fue principalmente el contenido del Derecho Romano como tal, sino el surgimiento de facultades de Derecho en las universidades y la aparici{\´o}n de un m{\´e}todo jur{\´i}dico desarrollado por glosadores y comentaristas en sus respectivas interpretaciones y sistematizaci{\´o}n de las fuentes del Derecho Romano (compuesto, entre otros, por el Corpus Juris Civilis y el Digesto); y del Derecho Can{\´o}nico. El esfuerzo de obtener conclusiones normativas generales de estas fuentes de Derecho tuvo como resultado una abstracci{\´o}n, una metodolog{\´i}a y el surgimiento del Derecho como una disciplina acad{\´e}mica. Cuando quiera que alguna facultad de Derecho fuera fundada en cualquier lugar de Europa los juristas aprend{\´i}an tanto conceptos jur{\´i}dicos nuevos como habilidades que antes hab{\´i}an permanecido desconocidas y que ahora se consideran propicias para la actividad comercial.}, language = {en} } @techreport{Wulf2007, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Wulf, Alexander J.}, title = {A Comparative Approach to the Protection of Fashion Innovations}, series = {UC Berkeley Recent Work}, journal = {UC Berkeley Recent Work}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0298-opus4-303}, pages = {1 -- 25}, year = {2007}, abstract = {This paper determines the relevance of industrial property rights to the development of innovations in the fashion industry. It examines how the level of innovation can remain high despite a free exchange of intellectual property - fashion designs - within the industry: The importance of innovation for a fashion business in the industry is determined by the choice of it's competitive strategy. That is, either to be an innovator who creates fashion innovations or to be an imitator who adopts them once they have proven their ability to prevail in the market. The success of innovators depends largely on their ability to react to fashion trends, reinforced by the social role of fashion products and to the extent of their potential to confer status on the owner. Thus the duration of a temporary monopoly gained by an innovation is limited not only by the market entrance of imitators - a period of time that can be prolonged by making use of industrial property rights protection - but also by the constant changes in fashion, a process barely affected by the utilization of intellectual property rights protection. A monopoly maintained by using intellectual property rights might very well not extend the product life cycle beyond the limits posed by the shifting changes of fashion; moreover, an extended life cycle maintained in these circumstances could seriously limit the innovators agility in satisfying consumer demand in line with fashion trends and provoke an inappropriate allocation of resources to developing unfashionable innovations, resulting in a much greater risk of product failure.}, language = {en} } @misc{Wulf2012, author = {Wulf, Alexander J.}, title = {The Common European Sales Law: an Empirical Analysis}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0298-opus4-9210}, year = {2012}, abstract = {On October 11th 2011 the European Commission proposed a Common European Sales Law (CESL) for the European Union. One of the main aims of this optional instrument is to help businesses to avoid the complexity associated with dealing with multiple mandatory provisions of their customers' home jurisdictions. In this study I used one of the datasets published by the European Commission to predict the characteristics of businesses that would have benefited from the introduction of the CESL. I also test whether the CESL would be an effective measure for addressing some of the legal barriers that the Commission intends to overcome. My results provide support for the Commission's claim that the adoption of a Common European Sales Law would benefit some businesses and that it would allow them to improve their operations on the European internal market. However, the CESL may not be effective as a measure for overcoming all of the legal barriers that the Commission intended to address with its proposal.}, language = {en} } @article{VoigtWulf2017, author = {Voigt, Stefan and Wulf, Alexander J.}, title = {What Makes Prosecutors Independent? - Analyzing the Determinants of the Independence of Prosecutors}, series = {Journal of Institutional Economics}, journal = {Journal of Institutional Economics}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0298-opus4-11402}, pages = {1 -- 30}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The prosecution of criminal suspects is an integral part of a country's justice system. While substantial scholarly attention has been devoted to the study of the police and judges and their relevance to the rule of law, surprisingly little is known about prosecutors. The aim of this paper is to contribute towards filling this knowledge gap. We first demonstrate the rising importance of prosecutors for criminal justice systems around the world. We identify the independence of prosecution agencies from the other two branches of government as a centrally important characteristic and then proceed to analyze the determinants of de facto prosecutorial independence from a political economy perspective. We find that press freedom, the immunity of parliamentarians and belonging to the common law tradition are positively associated with higher de facto independence.}, language = {en} }