Law plays a key role in determining the level of entrepreneurial action in society. Legal rules seek to define property rights, facilitate private ordering, and impose liability for legal wrongs, thereby attempting to establish conditions under which individuals may act. These rules also channel the development of technology, regulate information flows, and determine parameters of competition. Depending on their structure and implementation, legal rules can also discourage individuals from acting. It is thus crucial to determine which legal rules and institutions best enable entrepreneurs, whose core function is to challenge incumbency. This volume assembles legal experts from diverse fields to examine the role of law in facilitating or impeding entrepreneurial action. Contributors explore issues arising in current policy debates, including the incentive effect of legal rules on startup activity; the role of law in promoting or foreclosing market entry; and the effect of entrepreneurial action on legal doctrine.

Growing numbers of employees, consumers, and investors want companies to be truly good; these stakeholders will accept lower economic returns in order to support companies that prioritize sustainability, fair wages, and fair trade. Unlike charities or non-profit organizations, such companies - or social enterprises - are not only permitted but also expected to produce an economic return for investors. Yet, unlike traditional business ventures, social enterprises have no obligation to maximize profits, even on a long-term basis. In this comprehensive volume, Benjamin Means and Joseph W. Yockey bring together leading legal scholars and practitioners to offer an authoritative guide to social enterprise law and policy. The Cambridge Handbook of Social Enterprise Law takes stock of the field and charts a course for its future development. It should be read by entrepreneurs, investors, practitioners, academics, students and anyone else interested in how companies are evolving to address new demands for capitalism with a conscience.

Modern cases highlight the legal principles involving parties and situations that are entrepreneurial in nature in this one-of-a kind text. Students are presented with solid doctrine in the various disciplines covered in Entrepreneurship Law and come to understand their interrelatedness. A chronological approach, from the conception of the idea through all stages of the business, includes potential exit strategies such as the sale of the venture or an initial public offering. Hypotheticals, in the form of a running case study based on the authors’ vast experience as practicing attorneys, focus on the very real issues entrepreneurs face. The authors teach at Northwestern Law, well-known for its entrepreneurship course, which is one of the longest-running in the United States. Entrepreneurship Law: Cases and Materials is the only law school casebook of its kind. New to the Second Edition: New cases and readings reflecting changing doctrine in employment law, intellectual property, and securities law (including crowdfunding) Greater attention to social entrepreneurs, including the addition of public benefit corporations, L3Cs, and nonprofits to the chapter on creating an entity Refreshed and updated readings and materials reflecting current trends and practices in financing of entrepreneurial ventures Updates reflecting feedback from current adopters and students in the authors’ course at Northwestern Professors and student will benefit from: Modern cases that highlight the legal principles involving parties and situations that are entrepreneurial in nature Presents solid doctrine in the various disciplines covered in Entrepreneurship Law while also emphasizing their interrelatedness Provides a chronological approach to the subject, from the conception of the idea through all stages of the business, including potential exit strategies such as the sale of the venture or an initial public offering Contains hypotheticals and involved, practice-oriented skills-based problems that focus on actual issues entrepreneurs face that are informed by the authors’ real experiences as practicing attorneys Classroom tested by faculty at multiple law schools. Authors teach at Northwestern Law, well-known for its entrepreneurship course, one of the longest-running in the United States The only law school casebook of its kind Teaching materials Include: Website for adopting faculty with resources including sample syllabi, practice problems, and other curricular materials

This Handbook grapples conceptually and practically with what the sharing economy - which includes entities ranging from large for-profit firms like Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, Taskrabbit, and Upwork to smaller, non-profit collaborative initiatives - means for law, and how law, in turn, is shaping critical aspects of the sharing economy. Featuring a diverse set of contributors from many academic disciplines and countries, the book compiles the most important, up-to-date research on the regulation of the sharing economy. The first part surveys the nature of the sharing economy, explores the central challenge of balancing innovation and regulatory concerns, and examines the institutions confronting these regulatory challenges, and the second part turns to a series of specific regulatory domains, including labor and employment law, consumer protection, tax, and civil rights. This groundbreaking work should be read by anyone interested in the dynamic relationship between law and the sharing economy.

Covering over one-hundred topics on issues ranging from Law and Neuroeconomics to European Union Law and Economics to Feminist Theory and Law and Economics, The Oxford Handbook of Law and Economics is the definitive work in the field of law and economics. The book gathers together scholars and experts in law and economics to create the most inclusive and current work on law and economics. Edited by Francisco Parisi, the Handbook looks at the origins of the field of law and economics, tracks its progression and increased importance to both law and economics, and looks to the future of the field and its continued development by examining a cornucopia of fields touched by work in law and economics. The uniqueness of its breadth, depth, and convenience make the volume essential to scholars, students, and contributors in the field of law and economics.

Some of the most exciting and innovative legal scholarship has been driven by historical curiosity. Legal history today comes in a fascinating array of shapes and sizes, from microhistory to global intellectual history. Legal history has expanded beyond traditional parochial boundaries to become increasingly international and comparative in scope and orientation. Drawing on scholarship from around the world, and representing a variety of methodological approaches, areas of expertise, and research agendas, this timely compendium takes stock of legal history and methodology and reflects on the various modes of the historical analysis of law, past, present, and future. Part I explores the relationship between legal history and other disciplinary perspectives including economic, philosophical, comparative, literary, and rhetorical analysis of law. Part II considers various approaches to legal history, including legal history as doctrinal, intellectual, or social history. Part III focuses on the interrelation between legal history and jurisprudence by investigating the role and conception of historical inquiry in various models, schools, and movements of legal thought. Part IV traces the place and pursuit of historical analysis in various legal systems and traditions across time, cultures, and space. Finally, Part V narrows the Handbooks focus to explore several examples of legal history in action, including its use in various legal doctrinal contexts.