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.
Disciplines
Law and Economics
Date of this Version
December 2005
Recommended Citation
Uri Weiss, "The Regressive Effect of Legal Uncertainty" (December 2005). Tel Aviv University Law Faculty Papers. Working Paper 30.
http://law.bepress.com/taulwps/art30