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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · 21h

"Very interesting and recommended" Not bad for a "law & baseball" paper! Thanks @lsolum.bsky.social!

Lawrence Solum @lsolum.bsky.social · 6d

Tallarita on Roberts, Balls, and Strikes

Roberto Tallarita (Harvard Law School) has posted Calling Balls and Strikes on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Chief Justice Roberts’s metaphor of judges as umpires has been often criticized for being a bad theory of legal adjudication. Unlike umpires,…

Tallarita on Roberts, Balls, and Strikes

Roberto Tallarita (Harvard Law School) has posted Calling Balls and Strikes on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Chief Justice Roberts’s metaphor of judges as umpires has been often criticized for being a bad theory of legal adjudication. Unlike umpires, Roberts’s critics argue, judges are not mechanical reporters of pre-existing normative truths. In this Essay, I argue that Roberts’s metaphor is a bad theory of baseball.

legaltheoryblog.com

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Aug 4

Over at @HarvardCorpGov there's a short summary of my new paper with Kenneth Khoo on the stock market response to SB 21 |The Price of Delaware Corporate Law Reform corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2025/08/04/t...

The Price of Delaware Corporate Law Reform

Early this year, within a matter of weeks, Delaware legislators proposed and enacted Senate Bill 21 (SB 21), a significant overhaul of the state’s ...

corpgov.law.harvard.edu

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Jul 22

Tonight we’ll learn the fundamentals of scorekeeping

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Jun 26

New working paper (with Kenneth Khoo) on the controversial Delaware corporate law reform (SB 21). We examine the market reaction to SB 21 through a series of event studies and we find that the market thinks the new rules are bad for investors.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Comments welcome!

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Apr 29

I haven’t visited Henry in a while—five or six months. Sorry, Henry. But he’s doing well—just a bit grumpy these days. “Men talk of freedom! How many are free to think? free from fear, from perturbation, from prejudice?”

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Apr 13

Yes! It's the light warning about the next tunnel. But congratulations on this well-deserved end of one tunnel!

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Feb 23

Im here to tell you that a harpsichord solo can be exhilarating if Ian Watson is playing Brandenburg no. 5

Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Feb 18

The new Delaware bill on controlling shareholders is the end of an era. www.linkedin.com/posts/robert...

Roberto Tallarita on LinkedIn: Regardless of its merits, the new Delaware bill (https://lnkd.in/ePt4FsaV)…

Regardless of its merits, the new Delaware bill (https://lnkd.in/ePt4FsaV) is a radical repudiation of a method and an ethos. For better or worse, Delaware…

www.linkedin.com

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Feb 6

When I make "Tallarita's Corporations Illustrated" publicly available, I'm sure this will be one of the most beloved illustrations

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Jan 16

I don't know anything anymore about films, but I can't forget the epiphany of watching this when it came out, in a small theater in Rome, in Via delle Quattro Fontane. Lynch was pure, absolute cinema. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTYz...

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Jan 16

In one of my previous lives I was in love with cinema. I went to festivals and wrote reviews and critical essays for independent webzines. And it was mostly David Lynch's fault.

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Jan 12

I like the debate on whether today's economists should read old economists, but a more interesting one is whether generals should travel to the battlefield with a small library of classics

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Jan 9

If I had to found a new religion, it would be entirely based on Moby Dick. Its scripture would be the novel itself and its theologians would write endless commentaries on the moral, spiritual, and existential implications of random quotes of the Moby Dick bot

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Jan 5

Many people don’t like the idea of a literary canon. I do like it, but if the editor of the NYT Book Review doesn’t read the canon, (sadly) there is no canon.

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Jan 4

Then, if the topic permits, you should start with a “funny story.” Or, if the topic is too serious for this, with something sad, new, or terrible. Because, when one has already eaten too much, you refresh their appetite by giving them something bitterish or something sweet.

Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Jan 4

Fourth, sometimes readers are fatigued even before starting to read, like when you are trying to contribute to an already huge literature. In this case, you “should promise to speak more briefly than you were prepared to speak.”

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Jan 4

And how do you show that the issues are important? If they concern all humanity, that particular audience, the interests of the republic, some illustrious people (yes, this applies to academic papers), or the immortal gods (this, unfortunately, doesn’t apply).

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Jan 4

Third, there’s only one way to win the reader’s attention: show that the things you are going to say are important, novel, and incredible (magna, nova, incredibilia). Well, they don’t need to be truly “incredible” in our line of business, but they shouldn’t be obvious.

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Jan 4

Uncertain cases (anceps genus causae): These are cases on which reasonable people disagree. The introduction should immediately tackle the disputed question.

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Jan 4

Complicated cases (obscurum genere causae): If the issues are difficult to grasp, you should make the reader receptive by presenting an outline of the case (summam causae) briefly and in plain language (aperte et breviter).

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Jan 4

Modest cases (humile genus causae): When the reader is likely to treat the topic dismissively, you must first explain why the issue is important and make the reader pay attention.

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Jan 4

Difficult cases (admirabile genus causae): Especially when readers are intensely hostile (vehementer abalienati), these require a lot of circumspection. You should first try to win the goodwill of the readers, gradually and indirectly.

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Jan 4

“Honorable cases” (honestum genus causae): They enjoy intuitive support from the readers and do not need much of an introduction. You can simply make your main points in a clear and straightforward way (perspicue et protinus).

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Jan 4

Second, a key goal of the introduction is to bring the mind of the reader into the proper disposition to receive the rest. But the best way to do so depends on the kind of case you are about to make.

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Roberto Tallarita @rtallarita.bsky.social · Jan 4

(Some of your economist friends will say that this piece of advice doesn’t apply to “true social scientists” like them. If they say so, tell them to read Deirdre McCloskey.)

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