Cheaper transportation, faster communication, and lowered trade barriers have made people, firms, and their assets much more mobile. This increasing mobility has strained traditional notions that laws operate within geographic borders. Instead, some nations find their laws powerless to control or regulate behavior, while others pass laws that have profound effects on assets and activities worldwide. Today, states increasingly act as hawkers of legal rules in a market for law where people and firms often can shop for those regimes that they find most desirable. A California resident can incorpo ... More

Cheaper transportation, faster communication, and lowered trade barriers have made people, firms, and their assets much more mobile. This increasing mobility has strained traditional notions that laws operate within geographic borders. Instead, some nations find their laws powerless to control or regulate behavior, while others pass laws that have profound effects on assets and activities worldwide. Today, states increasingly act as hawkers of legal rules in a market for law where people and firms often can shop for those regimes that they find most desirable. A California resident can incorporate her shipping business in Delaware, register her ships in Panama, hire her employees from Hong Kong, place her earnings in an asset-protection trust formed in the Cayman Islands, and enter into a same-sex marriage in Massachusetts or Canada, and in doing so, she can enjoy the California sunshine while at least potentially avoiding many facets of the state's laws.