Instructor: Robin D. Hanson, Assoc. Professor, Economics (rhanson@gmu.edu, http://robinhanson.com)
Office Hours: Officially Tues-Thurs 6-7p. But I'm usually in at Carow Hall 10A. Call ahead (703-993-2326) if you want to be sure.

Catalog Entry:

Econ 415 Law and Economics (3:3:0). Prerequisite: ECON 306 or permission of instructor. An economic analysis of the law. Topics include an introduction to legal institutions and legal analysis; application of economic concepts to the law of property, contracts and torts, criminal law, and constitutional law; the economic efficiency of the common law; and a public choice perspective on the evolution of the law.

David D. Friedman, Law's Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters, Princeton Univ. Press 2000, ISBN 0691090092.

A. Mitchell Polinsky, Introduction To Law and Economics, Third Edition Aspen Publishers, 2003, ISBN 9780735534735.

Robert Cooter and Thomas Ulen, Law and Economics, Fifth Edition, Addison Wesley 2007, ISBN 0-321-33634-8

Gain familiarity with basic facts and issues in the economics of law, and an ability to use basic economics to argue for particular legal outcomes.

• Class Participation Please contribute to class discussions.
• Quizes Three in-class quizes will given. Each quiz will emphasize the lectures and text readings since the previous quiz. Quizes are open book, open notes.
• Defended Opinions Three times you will write a defense of your opinions on a legal topic. The assigned topics will be unusual, in order to encourage you to think them through yourself, rather than looking up what others have said.

1. Property: Who Gets What Asteriods and Sunlight?
2. Contract: What remedy and damages for breaching job contract?
3. What remedy and damages for cuckold? Limit to 2 pages.

• Quizes (take half of class time): 22Sept,27Oct,17Nov
• Defended Opinions: 27Oct,17Nov,8Dec

Disability Notice

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