From dismal to dominance? Law and economics and the values of imperial science, historically contemplated

The history of the economic analysis of law is one of success, whether success is measured by the field’s explanatory power or by its professional entrenchment. On the economics side, its journals have significant status within the profession at large, the subject matter has its own JEL code, and texts and courses have proliferated at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The economic approach, while retaining much of its original flavor, has not remained static; rather, it has evolved to encompass a somewhat broader perspective than evidenced in its formative years. This broadening owes, of course, to the influence of work being done in behavioral law and economics and the analysis of social norms, movements that seem to be generating a natural, and even predictable. Gary Becker is the person perhaps most closely associated with this view of economics and Richard Posner, in the minds of most, with the application of these values with the legal arena.

Duke Scholars

Author Steven G. Medema Economics