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Is the U.S. tort system in crisis? CBS television's 60 Minutes has said the tort system metes out "jackpot justice," and Newsweek has called America a "Lawsuit Hell." Other observers of the legal system, however, argue that the tort crisis is a myth. Although both sides of the debate rely primarily on anecdote and the selective use of evidence, a sound diagnosis of the tort system requires a rigorous analysis of hard data, not a retelling of sensationalistic sound bites. In Judge and Jury: American Tort Law on Trial, economists Eric Helland and Alexander Tabarrok present their study of tens of thousands of tort cases from across the United States. The result is the most complete picture of the U.S. system of civil justice to date. Examining three of the key players of the tort system (juries, judges, and lawyers), Helland and Tabarrok conclude that the tort system is badly broken in some respects but functions surprisingly well in others.

A detailed and beautifully written account of the history of oceanography, The Fluid Envelope of Our Planet is an engaging account of the emergence of a scientific discipline.

Third-party liens have increasingly become an issue in resolving mass litigation events. Traditionally, liens in the civil justice system represent a claim by a creditor against a plaintiff's (the debtor's) cause of action. In recent years, Medicare and increasingly other forms of health insurance have been given far more extensive lien rights, particularly with regard to the obligations they are owed by defendants' insurers. Because these rights extend beyond the plaintiff to the plaintiff's lawyer and the defendant, these rights have made resolving these liens a requirement of settlement. Not surprisingly, anecdotal evidence suggests that liens are becoming more frequent. This is potentially problematic if liens become sufficiently burdensome or costly that potential litigants do not pursue cases. In this paper the author examines the different types of health care liens and trends in prevalence, as well as how liens have changed the landscape of claim resolution. The author uses a unique dataset on the resolution of a number of mass compensation events, as well as smaller claims. He finds that health care liens are relatively common in his dataset of mass compensation events. Moreover, he finds some evidence that smaller-value liens are more prevalent among Medicare liens, which is consistent with the hypothesis that Medicare liens' more extensive rights relative to other lien types lead the Center for Medicare Services to pursue more and smaller liens than private lien holders.

Examines the relationship between fair value accounting and historical cost accounting and systemic risk to the financial system, including the role that the accounting approaches played in the 2008 financial crisis.

Oceans have had a mysterious allure for centuries, inspiring fears, myths, and poetic imaginations. By the early twentieth century, however, scientists began to see oceans as physical phenomena that could be understood through mathematical geophysics. The Fluid Envelope of Our Planet explores the scientific developments from the early middle ages to the twentieth century that illuminated the once murky depths of oceanography. Tracing the transition from descriptive to mathematical analyses of the oceans, Eric Mills examines sailors' and explorers' observations of the oceans, the influence of Scandinavian techniques on German-speaking geographers, and the eventual development of shared quantitative practices and ideas. A detailed and beautifully written account of the history of oceanography, The Fluid Envelope of Our Planet is also an engaging account of the emergence of a scientific discipline.

"Three Victorian lady explorers set out on an adventure that takes them to darkest Africa, highest Himalaya and Terra Incognita..." --back cover.