I’ve been asked to step in and teach a 1L elective course on law and economics this spring, covering for a colleague who has taken a high level economics post in the administration. I have to pick a textbook very soon. The course is for second semester 1Ls, and my goal is to attract 1Ls who did not major in business or economics as undergrads, and make it comprehensible to them.
That means that I don’t want it to be super-math heavy. It also needs to focus around the 1L courses that they’ve been taking – antitrust and IP and my own corporate finance won’t work, because they come in later years, and so it needs to focus around contracts, tort, property, criminal law. In addition, it is only a two unit, once a week class, so it can’t cover vast swathes of material, and in fact very far from it. I’ve never taught the basic, intro law and econ class before, and I’ve never taught 1Ls, so it should be an exciting pedagogical experience – for me, at least! I’d be grateful for suggestions in two categories:
- Main text – please tell me why this would be a useful textbook, given my constraints above.
- Supplemental texts, such as short introductions on game theory, statistics, supplemental readings on law and econ, etc., but specifically with law students in mind.
anonymous says:
David Friedman’s “Law’s Order” should be a good main text for your class. It is a very clearly written introduction to law and economics, and should work well for a 1L with little or no previous econ background. There are separate chapters with analysis of the law and econ perspective on torts, criminal law, contract, property, etc. Highly recommended.
October 31, 2009, 1:51 pmRobert says:
I’m currently taking a law and econ seminar as a 2L. We don’t have a textbook for this course, but the professor recommended a book that I’ve been reading to follow along with the assigned articles, and it is this book that I would recommend to you. “Law and Economics, Fifth Edition” by Robert Cooter and Thomas Ulen. I’ve found that the book fits all of the constraints you listed above. The book starts with a fairly thorough introduction to basic economic concepts for the students who didn’t major in business or econ. It then goes on to discuss Property Law, Contract Law, Tort Law, and Crime and Punishment. After a basic discussion of each area of the law, it goes into more in-depth topics related to each field. I’ve found the writing to be very easy to understand and the examples are usually quite good. There are also a number of problems in the chapters that students can go over to see if they understand the material. (And the book even has model answers!) Hope this helps.
October 31, 2009, 1:52 pmtvk says:
Posner’s Economic Analysis of Law might work. It has very little math, and is centered around the core common law subjects. The only drawback is that it has a lot of material.
October 31, 2009, 2:03 pmJon says:
Bump: Cooter & Ulen, 5ed.
October 31, 2009, 3:15 pmMichael F. Martin says:
Posner’s treatise. Is there really an alternative?
Supplement with Polinsky and the classic articles (Coase, Calabresi and Malamed, Shavell, &c.). Most were collected in a volume edited by Levmore, if I recall.
Consider finishing up with Ellickson’s Order without Law and Granovetter?
October 31, 2009, 3:41 pmCrimLawStudent says:
Man, I wish my school had a 1L law and economics elective class…
Besides Posner’s Economic Analysis of Law, there is Shavell’s Foundations of Economic Analysis. It also covers property, contracts, torts, criminal law.
If you want to assign just law review articles, there is Ulen’s Law and Economics Anthology.
My torts professor made us read Malloy’s Law and Economics, but it wasn’t very good.
October 31, 2009, 4:21 pmMark N. says:
Not a textbook suggestion, but a brief orientation might be helpful for students to understand why there is a thing called “law and economics”, and how it relates to other areas of the legal academy that also study law and economics, like “critical legal studies” on one hand, or the successors to Staatswissenschaften on the other; or even to other areas of law that don’t specifically foreground economics. Obviously not much time can be spent on this (it isn’t a legal history or survey-of-legal-theory course), but I’ve often in retrospect felt somewhat misled by courses that didn’t at least make a brief attempt to position themselves (sort of a feeling of, “was the professor trying to hide from me that disagreement in the field exists?”).
Not sure there’s an ideal overview (which would be brief yet comprehensible, and also reasonably even-handed), but Ch. 5 (“Economics in Law”) of this book, or some excerpt thereof, is the best I know of.
October 31, 2009, 5:24 pmMJG says:
I will second Friedman’s “Law’s Order.” Posner’s book is essential, but also both overbroad at times and afflicted with tunnel vision at others. Assigning the whole book seems like overkill too.
October 31, 2009, 5:36 pmHardly Surprised says:
Jeffrey L. Harrison, Law and Economics: Positive, Normative, and Behavioral Perspectives. Much more accessible than Posner, and provides a good contrast to the more traditional law & econ perspective.
October 31, 2009, 6:39 pmR. Richard Schweitzer says:
Why not consider two texts.
One on Law (chiefly legislation and Regs)as it affects economic decisions and activities;
The other on Economic developments that affect adaptations in case and statute law (and the regs thereunder)?
October 31, 2009, 10:09 pmKeri Brooks says:
I’ll third Friedman’s Law’s Order. I picked up the book before I started law school, and it demystified a lot of the first year curriculum.
November 1, 2009, 12:29 amBrian Hollar says:
I’m a JD/PhD student studying law and economics at George Mason University and was the TA for our law school’s Economic Foundations of Law class. I strongly recommend David Friedman’s “Law’s Order” and Posner’s “Economic Analysis of Law”. Cooter and Ulen’s “Law and Economics” is also excellent, but might be a bit too technical and scare off some of the students without econ backgrounds.
November 1, 2009, 1:16 amWorking Lawyer says:
Coase, of course.
November 1, 2009, 1:18 amMike McDougal says:
That’s what I used in law school. I don’t have anything else to compare it to, but it worked well for me.
November 1, 2009, 2:15 amPaul Rubin says:
I tried Friedman once — not terribly successful. Too idiosyncratic. I have basically been using Posner for many years and really like it. One advantage: it has a lot of stuff besides the common law material, so you can cover additional material of any sort, depending on your and the students’ interests. Besides, it is very nice to use an up-to-date book by the true founder of Law and Economics as a successful discipline.
November 1, 2009, 9:53 amBryan Gividen says:
A recommendation on a text NOT to use: Micelli’s “The Economic Approach to Law.” I used it in an undergrad economics course. The text is great for econ majors who aren’t familiar with the law, but I think it would be very redundant and unaccessible for a law student not familiar with economics. (i.e. The text assumes the reader has a background in economics and little background in law.)
November 1, 2009, 2:39 pmJ. Malcolm says:
I also recommend the Friedman and Posner books. I recommend supplementing the books with other material, such as the original Coase articles and case law applying law and economic principles.
November 1, 2009, 3:14 pmloki13 says:
I’ll second Harrison: Law and Economics.
Especially if you don’t have the time to go full-Posner.
November 1, 2009, 4:55 pmAnon 3L says:
I second Shavell’s Foundations of Economic Analysis. It is an approachable treatment of the essential principles of L&E. It is especially good at relating those principles to the basic concepts 1Ls should be learning in their core courses in an easy to understand (and discuss) manner.
November 1, 2009, 7:02 pmCam 2L says:
Depends on the level you are shooting for. Lower end: Analytical Methods for Lawyers by Jackson, etc. Good intro book in my opinion.
I think the best book is Posner’s, and Shavell’s is a good choice. Friedman’s is alright, but I think you can do better. Just my two cents.
November 2, 2009, 1:56 amJLR says:
Avery Wiener Katz, Foundations of the Economic Approach to Law. Awesome collection of digestible essays. I used it in my 2L L&E Class and loved it.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1566629934/thevolocons0d-20/
November 2, 2009, 3:45 pm