There is no book on the market that currently deals with the multifarious dimensions of law and economics to prepare students for the legal issues in law and economics, at home and abroad. It is unique because it incorporates all the main aspects of economics that are essential for the practice of law. It includes microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics, finance, professional ethics, and international economics. The book has been written for all those who are interested in mastering the economic and financial theories that provide advantages in the analysis and practice of law and economics.

Lucid, comprehensive, and definitive in its field, this text covers every aspect of economic analysis of the law. Features: Two new chapters, one on intellectual property, one on international and comparative law, both exploding fields of great importance. Earlier editions' questions have been converted to answers, making the book more accessible and informative. Revised to be clearer and less technical. More eclectic, reflecting recent criticisms of "rational choice" theory, in particular the need to supplement it with insights from psychology. Greater attention paid to judicial behavior, realistically modeled and explained in economic terms. Incorporates insights from the veritable explosion of books and articles published in the last few years on economic analysis of law.

This comprehensive textbook provides a thorough guide to the economic analysis of law, with a particular focus on civil law systems. It encapsulates a structured analysis and nuanced evaluation of norms and legal policies, using the tools of economic theory.

What effects do laws have? Do individuals drive more cautiously, clear ice from sidewalks more diligently, and commit fewer crimes because of the threat of legal sanctions? Do corporations pollute less, market safer products, and obey contracts to avoid suit? And given the effects of laws, which are socially best? Such questions about the influence and desirability of laws have been investigated by legal scholars and economists in a new, rigorous, and systematic manner since the 1970s. Their approach, which is called economic, is widely considered to be intellectually compelling and to have revolutionized thinking about the law. In this book Steven Shavell provides an in-depth analysis and synthesis of the economic approach to the building blocks of our legal system, namely, property law, tort law, contract law, and criminal law. He also examines the litigation process as well as welfare economics and morality. Aimed at a broad audience, this book requires neither a legal background nor technical economics or mathematics to understand it. Because of its breadth, analytical clarity, and general accessibility, it is likely to serve as a definitive work in the economic analysis of law.

Through original and incisive contributions from leading scholars, this book applies economics and other rational choice methods to an understanding of public international law, providing a bird’s eye view of some of its most fundamental elements from the perspective of economics. The chapters cover a range of topics, beginning with the building blocks of the nation state and continuing with the sources and the enforcement of international law and its various applications and extensions. The application of economic analysis to public international law is still in its formative stages and Economic Analysis of International Law provides a useful overview, as well as setting directions for new research. This volume provides a path through recent literature while identifying new areas and issues for research, making it an invaluable resource for scholars of public international law.

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Offering a fresh perspective on "nudging", this book uses legal paternalism to explore how legal systems may promote good policies without ignoring personal autonomy. It suggests that the dilemma between inefficient opt-in rules and autonomy restricting opt-out schemes fails to realistically capture the span of options available to the policy maker. There is a third path, namely the ‘mandated-choice model’. The book is mainly dedicated to presenting this model and exploring its great potential. Contract law, consumer protection, products safety and regulatory problems such as organ donation or excessive borrowing are the setting for the discussion. Familiarising the reader with a hot debate on paternalism, behavioural economics and private law, this book takes a further step and links this behavioural law and economics discussion with philosophical considerations to shed a light on modern challenges, such as organ donation or consumers protection, by adopting an openly interdisciplinary approach. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of contract law, legal systems, behavioural law and economics, and consumer law.

The Economic Impact Group (EIG) was created to support the work on the DCFR with insights from law and economics. It brings together a number of leading European law and economics scholars. The Group looked at the main elements of the DCFR with two questions in mind: from an economic perspective, is it sensible to harmonize private law across Europe for this specific element, and is the solution chosen in the DCFR optimal? This book presents the outcome of the work of the EIG. It deals with key issues such as the function of contract law, contract formation, good faith, non-discrimination, specific performance versus damages, standard contractual terms and consumer protection in contract law. The EIG complements the work of the drafters of the DCFR with insightful and critical assessments, based on the well-established law and economics literature.

This book looks at the negligence concept of tort law and studies the efficiency issue arising from the determination of negligence. It does so by scrutinizing actual court decisions from three common law jurisdictions – Britain, India and the United States of America. This volume fills a very significant gap, scrutinizing 52 landmark judgments from these three countries, by focussing on the negligent affliction of economic loss determined by common law courts and how these findings relate to the existing theoretical literature. By doing so, it examines the formalization of legal concepts in theory, primarily the question of negligence determination and liability, and their centrality in theories concerning tort law. This book will be very helpful for students, professors and practitioners of law, jurisprudence and legal theory. It will additionally be of use to researchers and academics interested in law and economics, procedure and legal history.

This book examines the main issues arising in economic analysis of contract law with special attention given to the incomplete contracts. It discusses both the main features of contract law as they relate to the problem of economic exchange, and how the relevant legal rules and the institutions can be analysed from an economic perspective. Evaluate the welfare impacts, analyses the effects and the desirability of different breach remedies and examines the optimal incentive structure of party-designed liquidated damages under the different dimensions of informational asymmetry. Overall the book aims to contribute to the legal debate over the adoption of the specific breach remedies when the breach victim’s expectation interest is difficult to assess, and to the debate over courts' reluctance to implement large penalties in the event of breach of contracts.