Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The economic approach to law, or "law and economics," is by far the most successful application of basic economic principles to another scholarly field, but most of the critical appraisal of the field has been scattered among law reviews and economics journals. Theoretical Foundations of Law and Economics is the first original, book-length examination of the methodology and philosophy of law and economics, featuring new essays written by leading legal scholars, philosophers, and economists. The contributors take issue with many of the key tenets of the economic approach to law, such as its assumption of rational behavior, its reliance on market analogies, and its adoption of efficiency as the primary goal of legal decision-making. They discuss the relevance of economics to the law in general, as well as to substantive areas of the law, such as contracts, torts, and crime.

Book Description
This is the first original, book-length examination of the methodology and philosophy of law and economics, featuring new essays written by leading legal scholars, philosophers, and economists. The contributors take issue with many of the key tenets of the economic approach to law, such as its assumption of rational behavior, its reliance on market analogies, and its adoption of efficiency as the primary goal of legal decision-making. They discuss the relevance of economics to the law in general, as well as to substantive areas of the law, such as contracts, torts, and crime.

Contents
Foreword page ix
Richard A. Epstein
Preface xv
Mark D.White
Notes on Contributors xvii
part one. the role and use of economics in legal
studies
1 ModelingCourts 1
Lewis A. Kornhauser
2 Is There aMethod to theMadness?Why Creative and
Counterintuitive Proposals Are Counterproductive 21
Michael B. Dorff and Kimberly Kessler Ferzan
3 Functional Law and Economics 41
Jonathan Klick and Francesco Parisi
4 Legal Fictionalism and the Economics of Normativity 55
Horacio Spector
part two. efficiency
5 Efficiency, Practices, and theMoral Point of View: Limits
of Economic Interpretations of Law 77
Mark Tunick
6 Numeraire Illusion: The Final Demise of the Kaldor–Hicks Principle 96
David Ellerman
7 Justice,Mercy, and Efficiency 119
Sarah Holtman
part three. rationality and the law
8 Bounded Rationality and Legal Scholarship 137
Matthew D. Adler

9 Emotional Reactions to Law and Economics,MarketMetaphors,
and Rationality Rhetoric 163
Peter H. Huang
10 Pluralism, Intransitivity, Incoherence 184
William A. Edmundson
part four. values and ethics in civil and criminal law
11 Law and Economics and Explanation in Contract Law 203
Brian H. Bix
12 Welfare, Autonomy, and Contractual Freedom 214
Guido Pincione
13 Efficiency, Fairness, and the Economic Analysis of Tort Law 234
Mark A. Geistfeld
14 Retributivism in aWorld of Scarcity 253
Mark D.White
Index 273