1. Economics and Property Law  ——Dean Lueck
This  essay  shows  how  the  economics  of  property  rights  can  be  used  to  understand
fundamental features of property law and related extra-legal institutions.   It examines both the
rationale for legal doctrine and the effects of legal doctrine regarding the exercise, enforcement,
and transfer of rights.   It also examines various property rights regimes including open access,
private ownership, common property, and state property. Property law is understood as a system
of societal rules designed to create incentives for people to maintain and invest in assets, which
in turn leads to specialization and trade.

2.  ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF LAW——Steven Shavell
Economic analysis of law is concerned with (a) determination of the effects of legal rules
and (b) evaluation of the desirability of the effects of legal rules with respect to well-specified
definitions of social welfare.  This entry surveys the approach as it applies to basic areas of law --
accident, property, contract, and criminal law -- as well as to the litigation process.  The
economic approach is also contrasted with traditional analysis of law, under which the effects of
legal rules are not usually systematically assessed.

3.  ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE GENERAL STRUCTURE OF THE LAW
     ____Steven Shavell

This paper contains a chapter on the general structure of the law from a forthcoming book,
Foundations of Economic Analysis of Law (Harvard University Press, 2003).  In this chapter, I
consider basic features of the legal system, including whether the law directly constrains behavior
or channels it by the threat of sanctions, and whether the law is brought into play by private legal
action or involves public enforcement.  I investigate the conditions under which one or another
structure of law will be socially desirable, and I then discuss tort, contract, criminal law, and several
other areas of law in the light of the analysis of the optimal structure of the law.