This book brings together the most authoritative articles on Law and Economics and the interaction between the two disciplines as well as the use of economic tools to analyse legal problems. Aimed at students experiencing the subject for the first time, the selections are interlaced with a wealth of features including explanatory introductions and exercises.
Key features of the reader include:
- The accessibility of the material: the articles should be understandable to those with only a limited background in economics and law.
- The book’s focus on the most important and basic – foundational – issues in law and economics.
- An exposition of the opposition between the different legal systems that exist in the world including common law, civil law and public law.
- Debates viewed from the perspective of the scholars from a range of backgrounds are presented as well as all the key figures in economics and in law.
The book should prove to be an essential resource to all students studying this burgeoning field and represents an exciting introduction to one of the key disciplines which has grown up in the social sciences in recent times.
Introduction Alain Marciano Part 1: From Old to New Law and Economics 1. Economics and Contiguous Discipline Ronald Coase 2. Wandering the Road From Pluralism to Posner: The Transformation of Law and Economics Steve Medema Part 2: Towards an Economic Analysis of Law 3. The Law and Economics Movement Richard A. Posner 4. The Art of Law and Economics: An Autobiographical Essay William M. Landes 5. Behavioral Law and Economics Christine Jolls Part 3: The Economics of the Emergence and Establishment of Norms and Customs 6. The Market for Social Norms Robert C. Ellickson 7. The Economics of Conventions H. Peyton Young 8. The Evolution of Economic Institutions as a Propagation Process Ulrich Witt Part 4: The Economics of Legal Systems 9. Private Creation and Enforcement of Law: A Historical Case David Friedman 10. Bruno Leoni in Retrospect Peter A. Aranson 11. Crafting social rules: Common Law vs. Statute law, Once Again Richard E. Wagner 12. The German Civil Code of 1896: An Economic Interpretation Juergen Backhaus Part 5: The Economics of Judicial Decision Making 13. Evolution of the Common Law and the Emergence of Compromise Douglas Whitman 14. Reputation and Judicial Decision-Making Thomas J. Miceli and Metcin M. Cosgel 15. An Economic Analysis of the Use of Citations in the Law Richard A. Posner Part 6 - Efficiency of the Common Law: Myth or Reality 16. The Rise and Fall of Efficiency in the Common Law: A Supply-Side Analysis Todd J. Zywicki 17. Economic Efficiency and the Common Law Thomas J. Webster 18. Micro and Macro Legal Efficiency: Supply and Demand Paul H. Rubin Postface by Richard A. Posner
Biography
Alain Marciano is Associate Professor at the University of Reims Champagne Ardenne, France.
"Eighteen papers, some previously published, explore the historical and methodological foundations of law and economics and economic analyses of the law…" – Journal of Economic Literature (June 2010)
