The Jurisprudential Niche of Law and Economics

Abstract

This is the first chapter of the revised edition of our book, Economics and the Law: From Posner to Postmodernism and Beyond (Princeton University Press, forthcoming August 2006). In this chapter we introduce the reader to the field of Law and Economics by defining the field broadly and documenting its continued growth. We briefly examine the path that has brought law and legal theory to its present situation. This is followed by a brief characterization of the relevant concepts of economic efficiency variously employed by legal-economic scholars.* We then present a description of the stages of choice and the underlying logic of Law and Economics, followed by a section that highlights some of the fundamental differences in methodology and modes of reasoning between economics and the law. The book's other chapters are as follows: Chapter 2 - Chicago Law and Economics, Chapter 3 - Public Choice Theory, Chapter 4 - Institutional Law and Economics, Chapter 5 - The New Institutional Economics, Chapter 6 - Branching Out: The New Haven School of Law and Economics, Modern Civic Republicanism, & Austrian Law and Economics, Chapter 7 - Social Norms and Law and Economics. * The two appendices to this chapter provide a detailed analysis of the primary concepts of economic efficiency. Due to the size of Appendix 2, we have only included Appendix 1 in this document.