LAWS 608 - Law and Economics

Credits: 2

This course will provide an introduction to the positive economic analysis of legal problems. Students will be invited to use fundamental principles of economic science to explain legal doctrines. The inquiry, therefore, will not focus on normative aspects of economic analysis, on whether the law ought to promote efficiency. After a brief survey of macroeconomics, the course will address primarily the major common law areas of property, contracts, torts, and criminal law. In general, the course will attempt to demonstrate how fundamental economic concepts, such as transactions costs, externalities, and risk allocation, can help explain the logic of these large bodies of law, difference among them, and long standing principles within each. Depending on the availability of time and the students' prior exposure to economic analysis in these subjects, the course may cover topics in corporation law and the common law process.

Note: This course satisfies the perspective course graduation requirement.

Basis of Grade: Final exam

Form of Grade: Letter

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