Posted by Ilya Somin: Calabresi-Melamed and Bernard Malamud: http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_12_23-2007_12_29.shtml#1198546054
With the possible exception of attending committee meetings, grading final exams is the most boring part of a professor's job; that - plus recovering from ankle surgery- is what I have been doing the last few days. Tis definitely the season to be jolly. Every once in a while, however, the monotony is broken by a hilarious exam blooper. In my Property class, I always cover [1]the Calabresi-Melamed framework which distinguishes property rules, liability rules and inalienability rules. This year, the students seem to have grasped it well. However, I did read one exam that repeatedly referred to "the Bernard Melamud" theory. After some confuision, I figured out that the student must have confused Calabresi and Melamed with Nobel Prize-winning novelist [2]Bernard Malamud. Malamud did write some books where legal issues feature prominently; his most famous novel, [3]The Fixer, is a fictionalized account of [4]the trial of Mendel Beilis, a famous anti-Semitic "blood libel" case in czarist Russia. Unfortunately, however, Malamud - unlike [5]Jane Austen - didn't focus much on property law and wasn't much of a law and economics scholar. It's a minor mistake by the student and one that I didn't penalize much; but humorous nonetheless. References 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_Rules,_Liability_Rules_and_Inalienability:_One_View_of_the_Cathedral 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Malamud 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fixer_%28Malamud_novel%29 4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beilis_trial 5. http://volokh.com/posts/1197354521.shtml _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list [email protected] http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
