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Loopholes

We formalise the argument of those American founding fathers who opposed the inclusion of the Bill of Rights into the Constitution. For some parameter values, the legislator, who is not sure whether or not there are any rights that he is unaware of, optimally chooses not to enumerate even those righ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Economic journal (London) 2016-09, Vol.126 (595), p.1774-1797
Main Authors: Chung, Kim-Sau, Fortnow, Lance
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:We formalise the argument of those American founding fathers who opposed the inclusion of the Bill of Rights into the Constitution. For some parameter values, the legislator, who is not sure whether or not there are any rights that he is unaware of, optimally chooses not to enumerate even those rights that he is aware of. We also show that, even if the legislator can add the sentence 'this Bill should not be interpreted as suggesting that any unlisted rights can be impaired by the government' to the Bill, the equilibrium outcome will stay the same.
ISSN:0013-0133
1468-0297
DOI:10.1111/ecoj.12203