Last updated: October 25, 2019

These Terms of Use (“Terms”) apply to your access to and use of the website (collectively, the “Site”) provided by The Ronald Coase Institute (“Coase Institute”, “the Coase Institute”, or “we”). By using our Site, you agree to these Terms, including the mandatory arbitration provision and class action waiver in Section 13. If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use our Site.

We may make changes to these Terms from time to time. If we make changes, we will provide you with notice of such changes, such as by sending an email, providing a notice through our Site or updating the date at the top of these Terms. Unless we say otherwise in our notice, the amended Terms will be effective immediately, and your continued use of our Site after we provide such notice will confirm your acceptance of the changes. If you do not agree to the amended Terms, you must stop using our Site.

If you have any questions about these Terms or our Site, please contact us at
                               

For information about how we collect, use, share or otherwise process information about you, please see our Privacy Policy.

You must be at least 18 years of age to use our Site.  If you use our Site on behalf of another person or entity, (a) all references to “you” throughout these Terms will include that person or entity, (b) you represent that you are authorized to accept these Terms on that person’s or entity’s behalf, and (c) in the event you or the person or entity violates these Terms, the person or entity agrees to be responsible to us.

You will not violate any applicable law, contract, intellectual property right or other third-party right or commit a tort, and you are solely responsible for your conduct while using our Site. You will not:

• Engage in any harassing, threatening, intimidating, predatory or stalking conduct;
• Impersonate or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity including an affiliation with the Coase Institute;
• Copy, reproduce, distribute, publicly perform or publicly display all or portions of our Site, except as expressly permitted by us or our licensors;
• Collect, store, transfer, modify, sell, share, or otherwise process the information from the Site, including information about individuals whose information is available on our Site, without the express, written consent of the individual or the Coase Institute, as applicable;
• Modify our Site, remove any proprietary rights notices or markings, or otherwise make any derivative works based upon our Site;
• Use our Site, and any materials or information provided on the Site, other than for their intended purpose and in any manner that could interfere with, disrupt, negatively affect or inhibit other users from fully enjoying our Site or that could damage, disable, overburden or impair the functioning of our Site in any manner;
• Reverse engineer any aspect of our Site or do anything that might discover source code or bypass or circumvent measures employed to prevent or limit access to any part of our Site;
• Use any data mining, robots or similar data gathering or extraction methods designed to scrape or extract data from our Site;
• Send, distribute or post spam, unsolicited or bulk commercial electronic communications, chain letters, or pyramid schemes; or
• Use our Site for any illegal or unauthorized purpose, or engage in, encourage or promote any activity that violates these Terms.

Enforcement of this Section 3 is solely at the Coase Institute’s discretion, and failure to enforce this section in some instances does not constitute a waiver of our right to enforce it in other instances.  In addition, this Section 3 does not create any private right of action on the part of any third party or any reasonable expectation that the Site will not contain any content that is prohibited by such rules.

The Site, including the text, graphics, images, photographs, videos, illustrations and other content contained therein, are owned by the Coase Institute or our licensors and are protected under both United States and foreign laws. Except as explicitly stated in these Terms, all rights in and to the Site are reserved by us or our licensors. Subject to your compliance with these Terms, you are hereby granted a limited, nonexclusive, nontransferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to access and use our Site for your own personal, noncommercial use. Any use of the Site other than as specifically authorized herein, without our prior written permission, is strictly prohibited, will terminate the license granted herein and violate our intellectual property rights.

The RONALD COASE INSTITUTE, RCI, COASE INSTITUTE, and our logos, our product or service names, our slogans and the look and feel of the Site are trademarks of the Coase Institute and may not be copied, imitated or used, in whole or in part, without our prior written permission. All other trademarks, registered trademarks, product names and company names or logos mentioned on the Site are the property of their respective owners. Reference to any products, services, processes or other information by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, supplier or otherwise does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation by us.

You may voluntarily post, submit or otherwise communicate to us any questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, original or creative materials or other information about the Coase Institute or our Site (collectively, “Feedback”). You understand that we may use such Feedback for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, without acknowledgment or compensation to you, including, without limitation, to develop, copy, publish, or improve the Feedback in the Coase Institute’s sole discretion. You understand that the Coase Institute may treat Feedback as nonconfidential.

We may provide information about third-party products, services, activities or events, or we may allow third parties to make their content and information available on or through the Site (collectively, “Third-Party Content”). We provide Third-Party Content as a service to those interested in such content. Your dealings or correspondence with third parties and your use of or interaction with any Third-Party Content are solely between you and the third party. the Coase Institute does not control or endorse, and makes no representations or warranties regarding, any Third-Party Content, and your access to and use of such Third-Party Content is at your own risk.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you will indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Coase Institute and our officers, board members, faculty, administrators, agents, alumni, partners, and staff (individually and collectively, the “the Coase Institute Parties”) from and against any losses, liabilities, claims, demands, damages, expenses or costs (“Claims”) arising out of or related to (a) your access to or use of the Site; (b) your violation of these Terms; (c) your violation, misappropriation or infringement of any rights of another (including intellectual property rights or privacy rights); or (d) your conduct in connection with the Site. You agree to promptly notify the Coase Institute Parties of any third-party Claims, cooperate with the Coase Institute Parties in defending such Claims and pay all fees, costs and expenses associated with defending such Claims (including, but not limited to, attorneys' fees). You also agree that the Coase Institute Parties will have control of the defense or settlement, at the Coase Institute's sole option, of any third-party Claims. This indemnity is in addition to, and not in lieu of, any other indemnities set forth in a written agreement between you and the Coase Institute or the other Coase Institute Parties.

Your use of our Site is at your sole risk. Except as otherwise provided in a writing by us, our Site and any content therein are provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. In addition, the Coase Institute does not represent or warrant that our Site are accurate, complete, reliable, current or error-free. While the Coase Institute attempts to make your use of our Site and any content therein safe, we cannot and do not represent or warrant that our Site or servers are free of viruses or other harmful components. You assume the entire risk as to the quality and performance of the Site.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Coase Institute and the other Coase Institute Parties will not be liable to you under any theory of liability—whether based in contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, warranty, or otherwise—for any indirect, consequential, exemplary, incidental, punitive or special damages or lost profits, even if the Coase Institute or the other the Coase Institute Parties have been advised of the possibility of such damages.
The total liability of the Coase Institute and the other the Coase Institute Parties for any claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or our Site, regardless of the form of the action, is limited to $10.00 USD.
The limitations set forth in this Section 10 will not limit or exclude liability for the gross negligence, fraud or intentional misconduct of the Coase Institute or the other Coase Institute Parties or for any other matters in which liability cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law. Additionally, some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitations or exclusions may not apply to you.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you release the Coase Institute and the other Coase Institute Parties from responsibility, liability, claims, demands and/or damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown (including, but not limited to, claims of negligence), arising out of or related to disputes between users and the acts or omissions of third parties. If you are a consumer who resides in California, you hereby waive your rights under California Civil Code § 1542, which provides: “A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his or her favor at the time of executing the release, which if known by him or her must have materially affected his or her settlement with the debtor.”

In order for us to provide our Site, you agree that we may process, transfer and store information about you in the United States and other countries, where you may not have the same rights and protections as you do under local law.

Please read the following section carefully because it requires you to arbitrate certain disputes and claims with the Coase Institute and limits the manner in which you can seek relief from us, unless you opt out of arbitration by following the instructions set forth below. No class or representative actions or arbitrations are allowed under this arbitration agreement.In addition, arbitration precludes you from suing in court or having a jury trial.

No Representative Actions. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you and the Coase Institute agree that any dispute arising out of or related to these Terms or our Site is personal to you and the Coase Institute and that any dispute will be resolved solely through individual action, and will not be brought as a class arbitration, class action or any other type of representative proceeding.

Arbitration of Disputes. Except for small claims disputes in which you or the Coase Institute seeks to bring an individual action in small claims court located in the county of your billing address or disputes in which you or the Coase Institute seeks injunctive or other equitable relief for the alleged unlawful use of intellectual property, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law you and the Coase Institute waive your rights to a jury trial and to have any dispute arising out of or related to these Terms, our privacy policy, privacy and data security claims, or our Site resolved in court. Instead, for any dispute or claim that you have against the Coase Institute or relating in any way to the Site, our privacy policy, or privacy and data security claims, you agree to first contact the Coase Institute and attempt to resolve the claim informally by sending a written notice of your claim (“Notice”) to the Coase Institute by email at
                               
or by certified mail addressed to The Ronald Coase Institute, 561 Kingsland Ave #300144, University City, MO 63130, USA. The Notice must (a) include your name, residence address, email address, and telephone number; (b) describe the nature and basis of the claim; and (c) set forth the specific relief sought. Our notice to you will be similar in form to that described above. If you and the Coase Institute cannot reach an agreement to resolve the claim within thirty (30) days after such Notice is received, then either party may submit the dispute to binding arbitration administered by JAMS or, under the limited circumstances set forth above, in court. All disputes submitted to JAMS will be resolved through confidential, binding arbitration before one arbitrator. Arbitration proceedings will be held in St. Louis County, Missouri or may be conducted telephonically or via video conference for disputes alleging damages less than $1,000.00 USD, in accordance with the JAMS Streamlined Arbitration Rules and Procedures (“JAMS Rules”). The most recent version of the JAMS Rules are available at https://www.jamsadr.com/rules-streamlined-arbitration/and are hereby incorporated by reference. You either acknowledge and agree that you have read and understand the JAMS Rules or waive your opportunity to read the JAMS Rules and waive any claim that the JAMS Rules are unfair or should not apply for any reason.

You and the Coase Institute agree that these Terms affect interstate commerce and that the enforceability of this Section 13 will be substantively and procedurally governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. § 1, et seq. (the “FAA”), to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. As limited by the FAA, these Terms and the JAMS Rules, the arbitrator will have exclusive authority to make all procedural and substantive decisions regarding any dispute and to grant any remedy that would otherwise be available in court, including the power to determine the question of arbitrability. The arbitrator may conduct only an individual arbitration and may not consolidate more than one individual’s claims, preside over any type of class or representative proceeding or preside over any proceeding involving more than one individual.

The arbitrator, the Coase Institute, and you will maintain the confidentiality of any arbitration proceedings, judgments and awards, including, but not limited to, all information gathered, prepared and presented for purposes of the arbitration or related to the dispute(s) therein. The arbitrator will have the authority to make appropriate rulings to safeguard confidentiality, unless the law provides to the contrary. The duty of confidentiality does not apply to the extent that disclosure is necessary to prepare for or conduct the arbitration hearing on the merits, in connection with a court application for a preliminary remedy or in connection with a judicial challenge to an arbitration award or its enforcement, or to the extent that disclosure is otherwise required by law or judicial decision.

You and the Coase Institute agree that for any arbitration you initiate, you will pay the filing fee and the Coase Institute will pay the remaining JAMS fees and costs. For any arbitration initiated by Company, the Coase Institute will pay all JAMS fees and costs. You and the Coase Institute agree that the state or federal courts of the State of Missouri and the United States sitting in St. Louis County, Missouri have exclusive jurisdiction over any appeals and the enforcement of an arbitration award.

Any claim arising out of or related to these Terms or our Site must be filed within one year after such claim arose; otherwise, the claim is permanently barred, which means that you and the Coase Institute will not have the right to assert the claim.

You have the right to opt out of binding arbitration within 30 days of the date you first accepted the terms of this Section 13 by emailing us at
                               
. In order to be effective, the opt-out notice must include your full name and address and clearly indicate your intent to opt out of binding arbitration. By opting out of binding arbitration, you are agreeing to resolve disputes in accordance with Section 14.

If any portion of this Section 13 is found to be unenforceable or unlawful for any reason, (a) the unenforceable or unlawful provision shall be severed from these Terms; (b) severance of the unenforceable or unlawful provision shall have no impact whatsoever on the remainder of this Section 13 or the parties’ ability to compel arbitration of any remaining claims on an individual basis pursuant to this Section 13; and (c) to the extent that any claims must therefore proceed on a class, collective, consolidated, or representative basis, such claims must be litigated in a civil court of competent jurisdiction and not in arbitration, and the parties agree that litigation of those claims shall be stayed pending the outcome of any individual claims in arbitration. Further, if any part of this Section 13 is found to prohibit an individual claim seeking public injunctive relief, that provision will have no effect to the extent such relief is allowed to be sought out of arbitration, and the remainder of this Section 13 will be enforceable.

Any dispute arising from these Terms and your use of the Site will be governed by and construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of Missouri, except to the extent preempted by U.S. federal law, without regard to conflict of law rules or principles (whether of Missouri or any other jurisdiction) that would cause the application of the laws of any other jurisdiction. Any dispute between the parties that is not subject to arbitration or cannot be heard in small claims court will be resolved in the state or federal courts of Missouri and the United States, respectively, sitting in St. Louis County, Missouri.

We reserve the right to modify our Site or to suspend or stop providing all or portions of our Site at any time. You also have the right to stop using our Site at any time. We are not responsible for any loss or harm related to your inability to access or use our Site.

If any provision or part of a provision of these Terms is unlawful, void or unenforceable, that provision or part of the provision is deemed severable from these Terms and does not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and the Coase Institute relating to your access to and use of our Site. Notwithstanding any other provisions of these Terms, Sections 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, and 14 survive any expiration or termination of these terms. The failure of the Coase Institute to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not operate as a waiver of such right or provision. The section titles in these Terms are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect. Except as otherwise provided herein, these Terms are intended solely for the benefit of the parties and are not intended to confer third-party beneficiary rights upon any other person or entity. You agree that communications and transactions between us may be conducted electronically. These Terms may not be transferred, assigned or delegated by you, by operation of law or otherwise, without our prior written consent, and any attempted transfer, assignment or delegation without such consent will be void and without effect. We may freely transfer, assign or delegate these Terms or the Site, in whole or in part, without your prior written consent.