Tel Aviv University Legal Working Paper Series
Tel Aviv University Law Faculty Papers
The Regressive Effect of Legal Uncertainty
Abstract
Legal uncertainty has a regressive distributive effect. There are sides who gain from increasing legal uncertainty, and sides who lose from it. Legal uncertainty leads to regressive settlements. A shift from a certainty legal regime to an uncertainty legal regime transfers wealth from risk-averse parties to risk-neutral parties via the settlement. Thus, since poor people are more risk-averse than rich people, a legal uncertainty leads to a transfer of wealth from poor people to rich people. Also, since women are at least perceived to be more risk averse than men, a legal uncertainty leads to a transfer of wealth from women to men. This means that legal uncertainty has a class regressive effect and also a gender regressive effect.
Subject Area
Law and Economics
Recommended Citation
Uri Weiss,
"The Regressive Effect of Legal Uncertainty"
(December 2005).
Tel Aviv University Legal Working Paper Series.
Tel Aviv University Law Faculty Papers.
Working Paper 30.
http://law.bepress.com/taulwps/fp/art30
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