The Analytical Failures of Law and Economics - Softcover

Bayern, Shawn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1009159224 ISBN 13: 9781009159227

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2023

Synopsis

The law-and-economics movement remains a dominant force in American private law, even though courts and commentators recognize that many of its assumptions are implausible and that efficiency is not the law's only goal. This book adds to the debate by showing that many leading law-and-economics arguments fail on their own terms, even for those who accept their most important assumptions and goals. Adopting an analytical approach and using some law-and-economics methods against the leading arguments in that field, Shawn Bayern shows that economic thinking fails to explain or justify most rules in the common law. Bayern masterfully surveys leading law-and-economics arguments in tort, contract, and property law and shows them to be fragile, self-contradictory, or otherwise problematic. Those who accept that efficiency is important should not be persuaded by the kind of law-and-economics arguments that have remained in vogue among legal scholars for decades.

About this title

About the Author

Shawn Bayern is the Larry & Joyce Beltz Professor at the Florida State University College of Law. His research focuses on common-law issues, primarily in contracts, torts, and organizational law. He also has a deep background in computer science, with specialties in computer security and the development of programming languages. Professor Bayern is the author of Autonomous Organizations (2021).

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1009159224
• ISBN 13: 9781009159227
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 202