Provides students with a method for applying economic analysis to the study of legal rules and institutions. Four key areas of law are covered: property; contracts; torts; and crime and punishment. Added examples and cases help to clarify economic applications further.

In Law, Economics, and Conflict, Kaushik Basu and Robert C. Hockett bring together international experts to offer new perspectives on how to take analytic tools from the realm of academic research out into the real world to address pressing policy questions. As the essays discuss, political polarization, regional conflicts, climate change, and the dramatic technological breakthroughs of the digital age have all left the standard tools of regulation floundering in the twenty-first century. These failures have, in turn, precipitated significant questions about the fundamentals of law and economics. The contributors address law and economics in diverse settings and situations, including central banking and the use of capital controls, fighting corruption in China, rural credit markets in India, pawnshops in the United States, the limitations of antitrust law, and the role of international monetary regimes. Collectively, the essays in Law, Economics, and Conflict rethink how the insights of law and economics can inform policies that provide individuals with the space and means to work, innovate, and prosper—while guiding states and international organization to regulate in ways that limit conflict, reduce national and global inequality, and ensure fairness. Contributors: Kaushik Basu; Kimberly Bolch; University of Oxford; Marieke Bos, Stockholm School of Economics; Susan Payne Carter, US Military Academy at West Point; Peter Cornelisse, Erasmus University Rotterdam; Gaël Giraud, Georgetown University; Nicole Hassoun, Binghamton University; Robert C. Hockett; Karla Hoff, Columbia University and World Bank; Yair Listokin, Yale Law School; Cheryl Long, Xiamen University and Wang Yanan Institute for Study of Economics (WISE); Luis Felipe López-Calva, UN Development Programme; Célestin Monga, Harvard University; Paige Marta Skiba, Vanderbilt Law School; Anand V. Swamy, Williams College; Erik Thorbecke, Cornell University; James Walsh, University of Oxford. Contributors: Kimberly B. Bolch, Marieke Bos, Susan Payne Carter, Peter A. Cornelisse, Gaël Giraud, Nicole Hassoun, Karla Hoff, Yair Listokin, Cheryl Long, Luis F. López-Calva, Célestin Monga, Paige Marta Skiba, Anand V. Swamy, Erik Thorbecke, James Walsh

This accessible volume integrates wide-ranging economic methodologies with a vast array of legal subjects. Coverage includes the first-year law school curriculum along with institutions and doctrines comprising the core foundation of upper level legal study. Dedicated chapters introduce neoclassical economics, interest group theory, social choice, and game theory, and the book intersperses alternative methodological insights. The analysis synthesizes these methodologies with modern and classic case law, other legal materials, and policy discussions inspired by current events. Ideal for a law school seminar or capstone course, this unique volume is also perfectly suited for business school courses on legal methods and public policy. Professors will find a rich array of materials adaptable to varying pedagogical styles and substantive areas of emphasis. Students exploring these materials will emerge with a deeper understanding of law and economics and a greater appreciation of our lawmaking institutions.

In a concise, compelling argument, one of the founders and most influential advocates of the law and economics movement divides the subject into two separate areas, which he identifies with Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. The first, Benthamite, strain, “economic analysis of law,” examines the legal system in the light of economic theory and shows how economics might render law more effective. The second strain, law and economics, gives equal status to law, and explores how the more realistic, less theoretical discipline of law can lead to improvements in economic theory. It is the latter approach that Judge Calabresi advocates, in a series of eloquent, thoughtful essays that will appeal to students and scholars alike.

Distinguished by brevity, lucid writing, and well-chosen examples, An Introduction to Law and Economics, now in its Fifth Edition, focuses on a set of core topics that include property, contracts, torts, criminal law, and litigation. Avoiding specialized jargon and mathematics, Polinsky teaches students how to think like an economist and understand legal issues from an economic perspective. New to the Fifth Edition: A streamlining of the products liability chapter A revised discussion of the redistributive effects of legal rules to reflect more recent scholarship on this topic The addition of several other refinements in the text and in new footnotes An updated bibliography Professors and students will benefit from: Solid coverage of relevant economic principles A normative approach that illustrates how to assess legal rules and policies in terms of economic and social goals Clear explanations of concepts

What effects do laws have? Do individuals drive more cautiously, clear ice from sidewalks more diligently, and commit fewer crimes because of the threat of legal sanctions? Do corporations pollute less, market safer products, and obey contracts to avoid suit? And given the effects of laws, which are socially best? Such questions about the influence and desirability of laws have been investigated by legal scholars and economists in a new, rigorous, and systematic manner since the 1970s. Their approach, which is called economic, is widely considered to be intellectually compelling and to have revolutionized thinking about the law. In this book Steven Shavell provides an in-depth analysis and synthesis of the economic approach to the building blocks of our legal system, namely, property law, tort law, contract law, and criminal law. He also examines the litigation process as well as welfare economics and morality. Aimed at a broad audience, this book requires neither a legal background nor technical economics or mathematics to understand it. Because of its breadth, analytical clarity, and general accessibility, it is likely to serve as a definitive work in the economic analysis of law.

Analyzes law with reference to new findings in cognitive psychology and behavioral economics.

Examines the fundamental principles of our legal system from a public choice perspective and compares its efficiency and accuracy with other systems. It presents in full two controversial works by Gordon Tullock, 'The Logic of the Law' and 'The Case against the Common Law', as well as chapters from his 'Trials on Trial' and other innovative articles. Highly critical of the US common law system, Tullock argues for various reforms, even for its replacement with a civil code system.

Law and Economics in Jane Austen traces principles of law and economics in sex, marriage and romance as set out in the novels of Jane Austen, unveiling how those meticulous principles still control today’s modern romance. You will learn fascinating new insights into law and economics by seeing these disciplines through Jane Austen’s eyes. Readers who find themselves wishing Jane Austen had written just one more novel, or that she had somewhere offered more examination and analysis of her characters’ predicaments, or who desire to go deeper with her investigation of love, money and culture will praise this book. Discovering the legal and economic principles that drove her stories, Jane Austen’s Law & Economics reveals that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Love and money are constants in social connection. While culture may have changed over 300 years, principles of law and economics remain staples of modern romance – which is why Jane Austen continues to fascinate the modern mind. So sit back, enjoy, and be pleasantly taught and surprised at what you will learn from the methodical mind of Jane.

The law and economics movement came of age in the second half of the 20th century and had a profound effect on both the scholarship and practice of law. The specially commissioned essays in this book honor the pioneering contributions of those who created the foundation of the modern law and economics enterprise. The editors of the volume embrace a view of the field that is inclusive not only of a broad range of issues, but also of economic methods. Celebrated here as the founding pioneers of law and economics is a remarkably varied collection of scholars: applied and theoretical micro-economists, founders of public choice economics, and legal scholars and judges. They include: Ronald Coase, Aaron Director, George Stigler, Armen Alchian, Harold Demsetz, Benjamin Klein, James Buchanan, Gordon Tullock, Henry Manne, Richard Posner, Gary Becker, William Landes, Richard Epstein, Guido Calabresi, Frank Easterbrook, Daniel Fischel, Steven Shavell and A. Mitchell Polinsky. Contributors to the volume include other pioneers, former students and clerks, colleagues, and influential scholars in the field. Scholars and students working in the tradition of law and economics, as well as those in the fields of economics, law and public policy will find the book an essential reference for this important area of scholarship.