EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Economic analysis of law

Louis Kaplow and Steven Shavell

Chapter 25 in Handbook of Public Economics, 2002, vol. 3, pp 1661-1784 from Elsevier

Abstract: This is a survey of economic analysis of law, that is, of the emerging field under which the standard tools of microeconomics are employed to identify the effects of legal rules and their social desirability. Five basic subject areas are covered. The first is legal liability for harm. Here we discuss liability rules as incentives to reduce risk, issues of risk-bearing and insurance, and the costs of the liability system. Second, we consider property law, where we address the nature and justification of property rights, public property, the acquisition and transfer of property, externalities surrounding the use of property, and intellectual property. Third, we examine contract law, including the formation of contracts, their interpretation, and remedies for their breach. We focus on production contracts but also discuss other types, including donative contracts. Fourth, we treat the subject of civil litigation, that is, the bringing of lawsuits, and their settlement or disposition at trial. We also mention the appeals process, alternative dispute resolution, the provision of legal advice, and several additional topics relating to litigation. Fifth, we consider public enforcement of law, focusing on the level of law enforcement effort, the magnitude of sanctions, and other issues relevant to criminal law. Finally, we discuss criticisms that are commonly made by legal academics of economic analysis of law and offer concluding remarks.

JEL-codes: H0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (44)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B7P63 ... cb40d8474362f8f7e6aa
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Economic Analysis of Law (1999) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pubchp:3-25

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Handbook of Public Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().

 
Page updated 2024-10-17
Handle: RePEc:eee:pubchp:3-25