Teaching

Torts. (Syllabus) This four-unit, first-year course explores the basic principles governing private lawsuits for damages for wrongs that are noncontractual, including consideration of the concepts of strict liability, liability based on fault, intentional and negligent interference with personal and property interests and defenses thereto, recoverable damages, and related problems.

Economic Analysis of Health Care Law. (Syllabus) Three-unit, upper-level course designed to provide a broad overview of health care law from an economics perspective. The main goal of the course is to build a solid understanding of the different ways in which economic theory and empirical findings can inform health care policy. The course begins with a description of the industry’s organization and a discussion of the economic rationale behind industry regulation. The main focus is on analyzing the impacts of legal rules and proposed rules on health care markets using the tools of economics. Topics include health care financing, access, quality of care, the role of information, and various features of the recent health care reform act.

Health Care Law. (Syllabus) Four-unit, upper-level survey course focused on the law governing our health care services and health care insurance markets. The course covers a variety of topics from three main fields of health law: (1) provider and patient, (2) health care financing and reform, and (3) regulation of health care facilities and transactions. It also covers several components of the Affordable Care Act.

Law and Economics Workshop Series. (Syllabus) The Law and Economics Workshop is a research workshop. During a number of the sessions, outside speakers present working papers in the field. The specific topics vary depending on the interests of the speakers, but each paper applies the concepts and tools of economics to analyze legal and regulatory issues. The remaining sessions are designed to prepare students to evaluate the research papers. These sessions cover basic microeconomic theory and empirical methods, with an emphasis on how to read, interpret and critique theoretical and empirical studies. Students submit short memoranda that critique the workshop papers.

Competition Law in Health Care. (Syllabus) This seminar examines the role that competition law and regulation play in the health care industry in the United States. Antitrust enforcement agencies believe strongly that promoting competition in health care is critical to control health care costs. Many of those involved in the health care industry disagree. Some health care professionals argue that we can cut costs and improve care only through increased collaboration and cooperation. The seminar will consider the clash of these views by examining both supply-side and demand-side barriers to competition, the weight antitrust enforcement agencies give to values other than competition, the accelerating trend towards consolidation in the health care industry today, and integration among providers, including increasing hospital acquisition of physician groups, regulatory efforts to increase price transparency, innovation regulation and how the law might encourage competitive entry into markets.

Experimental Economics and Behavioral Economics (for Economics Institute for Law Professors, Henry Manne Program in Law & Economics Studies, Law and Economics Center, George Mason University School of Law). (2019 slides) This 4-hour session reviews the scientific method, experimental economics including an experiment conducted in the classroom, features of an experiment, and methods for applying experimental findings to policy, and behavioral law and economics including the most applied behavioral theories and applications of behavioral economics theory to law.