Cambridge University Press, 2009
DESCRIPTION
The economic approach to law, or “law and economics,” is by far the most successful application of basic economic principles to another scholarly field, but most of the critical appraisal of the field has been scattered among law reviews and economics journals. Theoretical Foundations of Law and Economics is the first original, book-length examination of the methodology and philosophy of law and economics, featuring new essays written by leading legal scholars, philosophers, and economists. The contributors take issue with many of the key tenets of the economic approach to law, such as its assumption of rational behavior, its reliance on market analogies, and its adoption of efficiency as the primary goal of legal decision-making. They discuss the relevance of economics to the law in general, as well as to substantive areas of the law, such as contracts, torts, and crime.
REVIEWS
Michael C. Macchiarola, Law and Politics Book Review, June 2009
James R. Wible, Eastern Economic Review, Fall 2011
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreward (Richard A. Epstein)
Preface (Mark D. White)
Part I: The Role and Use of Economics in Legal Studies
1. Modeling Courts (Lewis A. Kornhauser)
2. Is There a Method to the Madness? Why Creative and Counterintuitive Proposals Are Counterproductive (Michael B. Dorff and Kimberly Kessler Ferzan)
3. Functional Law and Economics (Jonathan Klick and Francesco Parisi)
4. Legal Fictionalism and the Economics of Normativity (Horacio Spector)
Part II: Efficiency
5. Efficiency, Practices, and the Moral Point of View: Limits of Economic Interpretations of Law (Mark Tunick)
6. Numeraire Illusion: The Final Demise of the Kaldor–Hicks Principle (David Ellerman)
7. Justice, Mercy, and Efficiency (Sarah Holtman)
Part III: Rationality and the Law
8. Bounded Rationality and Legal Scholarship (Matthew D. Adler)
9. Emotional Reactions to Law and Economics, Market Metaphors, and Rationality Rhetoric (Peter H. Huang)
10. Pluralism, Intransitivity, Incoherence (William A. Edmundson)
Part IV: Values and Ethics in Civil and Criminal Law
11. Law and Economics and Explanation in Contract Law (Brian H. Bix)
12. Welfare, Autonomy, and Contractual Freedom (Guido Pincione)
13. Efficiency, Fairness, and the Economic Analysis of Tort Law (Mark A. Geistfeld)
14. Retributivism in a World of Scarcity (Mark D. White)