Law, Economics, and Business Group (Stremitzer)

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Stremitzer, Alexander, Prof.

Education

Professor of Law (UCLA, 2015-2018)
Assistant Professor of Law (UCLA, 2011-2015)
Visiting Assistant Professor (Yale Law School, 2009/2010)
Assistant Professor of Economics (University of Bonn, 2006-2009)

Ph.D. in Business Economics (WU-Vienna)
J.D. (University of Vienna)
M.I.M.-CEMS (HEC-Paris)
B.Sc. in Business Administration (WU-Vienna)
 

Stremitzer

Contact

Prof. Dr. Alexander Stremitzer
Full Professor at the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences
  • IFW E 49
  • +41 44 632 40 08
  • Email

Professur für Recht und Ökonomie
Haldeneggsteig 4
8092 Zürich
Switzerland

Biography

Before joining ETH Zurich in May 2018, Alexander Stremitzer was a full Professor of Law at UCLA from 2015 to 2018 and an Assistant Professor of Law at UCLA from 2011 to 2015. Prior to that, he was Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Bonn. He held visiting appointments at Yale Law School, at Yale University’s economics department, at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, UCLA Law School, and at Harvard Law School. He also spent extended research visits at NYU Law School, ETH Zurich and Columbia University's Center for Contracts and Economic Organization. In 2020, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Law and Economics Association, and in 2024, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the European Association of Law & Economics.

Research Overview

Alexander Stremitzer's research and teaching interests include theoretical and experimental law and economics, contracts, business bankruptcy, and contract design. In addition to works in German, his recent scholarly work in English has been published in several journals, including the Journal of Legal Studies, the Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization, the Journal of Law & Economics, the American Review of Law & Economics, Games & Economic Behavior, the Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, the University of Chicago Law Review Online, the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, and the Yale Law Journal. Furthermore, Alexander conducts lab, internet, and field experiments on legal and social institutions. He is also interested in the effects of new technologies on legal policy, regulation, and private ordering.

Bibliography

Publications

Comments and Short Papers

  • Contract Remedies: Ex Post vs Ex Ante: Comment, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 173(1), 110-113, 2017. external page Full Text
  • The Measure of a MAC: A Quasi-Experimental Protocol for Tokenizing Force Majeure Clauses in M&A Agreements: Comment, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 168(1), 206-208 (2012). external page Full Text
  • If You Give Shareholders Power, Do They Use It?: Comment, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 166(1), 58-61 (2010). external page Full Text | external page SSRN
  • Erga Omnes Norms and the Enforcement of International Law: Comment, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 165(1), 29-32 (2009). external page Full Text | external page SSRN
  • Exploiting Plaintiffs through Settlement: Divide and Conquer: Comment, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 164(1), 27-30 (2008). external page Full Text | external page SSRN

Books and Book Chapters

  • Die Proportionalhaftung bei Verlust einer Chance – Eine rechtsökonomische und rechtsvergleichende Analyse unter Berücksichtigung des deutschen, schweizerischen, und österreichischen Rechts (with Martin Monsch), in Deutsches Deliktsrecht aus Ökonomischer Perspektive, 16. Travemünder Symposium zur Ökonomischen Analyse des Rechts, 242-288 (edited by F. Faust und H.-B. Schäfer, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, 2024).
  • Die Proportionalhaftung als vorzugswürdiges Haftungsregime (with Gregor Christandl), in Interdisziplinäre Studien zur Komparatistik und zum Kollisionsrecht, 201-35 (edited by B. Verschraegen, Jan Sramek Verlag, Wien, 2010). (English Title: Proportional Liability as the Preferrable Liability Regime, in Interdisciplinary Studies of Comparative and Private International Law.)
  • Ökonomische Analyse der Organhaftung (with Georg Eckert and Kristoffel Grechenig), in Vorstandshaftung in 15 europäischen Ländern, 95-163 (edited by S. Klass, Linde Verlag, Wien, 2005). (English Title: Economic Analysis of Director’s Liability) external page Full Text | external page SSRN
  • Agency Theory: Methodology, Analysis. A Structured Approach to Writing Contracts. Peter Lang (2005). Part of the Outstanding Dissertations Series of the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.

Case Studies and Teaching Materials

Other

  • Would Humans Trust an A.I. Judge? More Easily Than You Think. (with Benjamin Chen & Kevin Tobia), Slate Magazine, 28 February 2023. external page Full Text
  • The Constitution Requires the U.S. to Offer Vaccine Passports (with Kevin Cope), Slate Magazine, 4 May 2021. external page Full Text
  • Verfassungsrechtlich unproblematisch und sogar geboten / Constitutionally permitted – and even required, ETH News, 23 April 2021. Full Text German | Full Text English
  • Governments are constitutionally permitted to provide ‘vaccine passports’ – we think some may also be constitutionally obligated to do so (with Kevin Cope), Journal of Nuclear Medicine, April 2021. external page Full Text
  • Discussion with Leaders: Irène Buvat and Ken Herrmann Talk with Alexander Stremitzer, Kevin Tobia, and Aileen Nielsen, Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 62(1), 3-5 (2021). external page Full Text
  • Künstliche Intelligenz – Rechtliche Leitplanken und neue Haftungsrisiken (with Jakob Merane), Recht relevant. für Verwaltungsräte, 6|2020.

Working Papers

  • Norm-Based Enforcement of Promises (with Nate Atkinson and Rebecca Stone), UCLA School of Law, Law-Econ Research Paper 19-04, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, reject and resubmit. external page SSRN
  • Private Sector Regulation Increases Contact Tracing App Uptake: A Lesson for Vaccines (with Aileen Nielsen, Meirav Furth-Matzkin, and Henry Kim).

Co-Authors

external page Richard R.W. Brooks; external page Gregor Christandl; external page Georg Eckert; external page Florian Ederer; external page Daniel Goeller; external page Kristoffel Grechenig; external page Henrik Lando; external page Adi Leibovitch;  external page Dorothee Mischkowski; external page Avi Tabbach; external page Stephan Tontrup; external page Kevin Cope, external page Ilya Somin, external page Kevin Tobia, external page Ben Minhao Chen, external page Rebecca Stone, Aileen Nielsen, external page Henry Kim, external page Meirav Furth-Matzkin, external page Emanuel Towfigh

Teaching

Professor Stremitzer is specialized in teaching on Contracts, Business Bankruptcy, Contract Design, Law and Economics, and Internet Privacy. At ETH he is currently offering:

  • Grundzüge des Rechts (in Deutscher Sprache)
    Diese Vorlesung bietet eine Einführung in das Recht. Ziel der Vorlesung ist es Nichtjuristen mit grundlegenden Rechtsregeln, und deren Funktion in der Gesellschaft vertraut zu machen.
  • Law & Economics Lecture and Workshop Series (in English)
    The Law & Economics Lecture and Workshop Series is an interdisciplinary workshop that brings together scholars and students from various Swiss universities. Leading Law & Economics scholars present their current research. Students will write graded reaction papers. This course is particularly well suited for students who wish to learn more about law and economics and to see the scholarly process in action. Many of the papers will be technical so students should have some knowledge of empirical methods and ideally a basic understanding of calculus.
  • Contract Design I (in English)
    This course takes an engineering approach to contracting. It aims to bridge the gap between economic contract theory, contract law scholarship and the drafting of real world contracts. Students will apply insights from mechanism design and law to the design of real world incentive compatible contracts.
  • Contract Design II (in English)
    This course is a clinic/simulation in which you will apply insights from Contract Design I to structure a Complex Contract for a (hypothetical) Client Organization: You will work within your small group outside of class time to structure a contract for a complex transaction. Each small group will be presented with a real world deal or case study.
  • Algorithms and Fairness (in English)
    In this course we address the increasingly important question of what AI fairness means and how AI fairness can be addressed by legal, social science, and applied mathematical research to inform policy making. The aim is to understand the history of fairness as defined in law, social science, and applied mathematics research; to identify logical and mathematical conflicts between different definitions of fairness; and to explain why fairness and AI is a highly contested and unresolved problem in law.
  • Law & Tech (in English)
    This course, which is co-taught by law professor Alexander Stremitzer and fellow in law and technology Aileen Nielsen, introduces students to legal, economic, and social perspectives on the increasing economic and social importance of technology. We focus particularly on the challenges to current law posed by the increasing rate of tech innovation and adoption generally and also by case-specific features of prominent near-future technologies. The course is intended for a wide range of engineering students, from machine learning to bioengineering to human computer interaction, as well as for law students interested in acquiring a better understanding of state-of-the-art technology. The course will combine both an overview of major areas of law that affect the regulation of technology and also guest lectures on the state-of-the art in a variety of important technologies, ranging from autonomous vehicles to fair artificial intelligence to consumer-facing DNA technologies.The course is open to ETH students through the Science in Perspective program of the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences.
  • Business Strategy and Corporate Governance (in English)
    This course is taught by Prof. Eric Zolt (UCLA), Prof. Alexander Stremitzer (CLE/ETH Zurich), and Alessandro Tacconelli (CLE/ETH Zurich). The class uses case studies to explore complex legal, business and ethical issues that surround modern corporate governance with a special emphasis on tech companies. Issues include corporate purpose (Airbnb), challenges related to start-​ups and founder-​dominated firms (Theranos and WeWork), disruptors ignoring established legal rules (Uber), and governance in non-​profit organizations (FIFA).

Previous Teaching Activities

  • Internet Privacy (in English), ETH Zurich, F 2019
  • Business Bankruptcy, UCLA School of Law, F 2017
  • 1L Contracts, UCLA School of Law, S 2012, F 2012, S 2013, F 2013, S 2014, S 2015, F 2016
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