The Archives

Everything written by Nicholas Almendares on law, economics, and more

Nicholas Almendares

Nicholas Almendares is an associate professor of law at Indiana University Maurer School of Law, where his research focuses on accountability and democracy across areas of law, such as class actions, separation of powers, collective responsibility, and campaign financing. 

He joined the Maurer faculty in 2020 from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was program director of the Karsh Center for Law and Democracy. He has also taught at the Seton Hall University School of Law and Tulane University Law School and clerked for the Hon. Janis Graham Jack in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

He received his bachelor's from Amherst College, his J.D. from New York University School of Law, where he was a Dwight D. Opperman Scholar, and his Ph.D. in politics from New York University. 

Posts

‘Deliberation as Self-Discovery and Institutions for Political Speech,’ by Catherine Hafer and Dimitri Landa

Nicholas Almendares Aug 21, 2026

The We Are What We Read series is, in part, about what defines the field of law & economics. The field’s natural home lies in applications that are, well, economic. Hence its longstanding—and now standard—role in contracts, corporations, antitrust, torts, and other areas. For this selection, I wanted to show how law & economics can ... ‘Deliberation as Self-Discovery and Institutions for Political Speech,’ by Catherine Hafer and Dimitri Landa

Administrative LawCorporate GovernanceEconomics

‘The Law Merchant,’ by Milgrom, North, & Weingast

Nicholas Almendares Dec 16, 2025

In “The Role of Institutions in the Revival of Trade: The Law Merchant, Private Judges and the Champagne Fairs,” Paul Milgrom, Douglass C. North, and Barry R. Weingast take as their starting point a circumstance unusual for legal work: circumstances where effective enforcement does not exist.  Their motivating example is the “law merchant” or lex ... ‘The Law Merchant,’ by Milgrom, North, & Weingast

Contracts & Commercial LawIO: TheoryLaw & Positive Political Theory