Law and Reputation
How the Legal System Shapes Behavior by Producing Information

The law shapes behavior not only by imposing sanctions, but also by producing information on how powerful entities behave.

Roy Shapira (Author)

9781107186507, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 September 2020

250 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.5 cm, 0.6 kg

'Overall, Shapira's explanations are as clear as they can be for such a complex subject. He combines interviews, case studies, and meta-analysis of other studies in various fields that are related to law and reputation, such as consumer behavior and stock market analysis. Each chapter begins with an overview of the chapter's content and how it links to other parts of the book. Readers also benefit from extensive footnotes, with sources from a variety of fields. I recommend the book to any law library that collects in law and economics, business law, or products liability.' Melissa Strickland, Law Library Journal

The legal system affects behavior not just directly, by imposing sanctions, but also indirectly, by producing information on how people behave. For example, internal company documents exposed during litigation will help third parties assess whether they trust a company and want to keep doing business with it. The law therefore affects behavior by shaping reputations. Drawing on economics, communications, and a nascent multidisciplinary literature on reputation, Roy Shapira highlights how reputation works, and how information from the courtroom affects the court of public opinion, with a particular emphasis on the role of the media. By fleshing out interactions between law and reputation, Shapira corrects common misperceptions about the ability of market forces to discipline corporate behavior and adds to timely, ongoing debates such as the desirability of heightened pleading standards or mandatory arbitration clauses. Law and Reputation should interest any scholar who invokes notions of market discipline in their work.

1. How Reputation Works
2. How The Legal System Affects Reputation
3. Private Litigation. Corporate Law's Puzzle
4. Public Enforcement. The Sec's Settlement Practices
5. Corporate Philanthropy As Signaling And Co-Optation
6. Regulators' Reputation
7. The Case For Openness
8. The Case Against Mandatory Arbitration
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Company, commercial & competition law [LNC], Law & society [LAQ], Jurisprudence & philosophy of law [LAB], Business ethics & social responsibility [KJG]