Instructor: Robin D. Hanson, Assoc. Professor, Economics (rhanson@gmu.edu, http://robinhanson.com)
Office Hours: Officially Tuesdays 9:15-10:15am, but I'm usually in at Carow Hall 10B. Email or call ahead (703-993-2326) if you want to be sure I'll be in.

Catalog Entry:

Econ 415 Law and Economics. Credits 3 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 2001, ISBN 9780691090092. Free online!

A. Mitchell Polinsky, Introduction To Law and Economics, 4th Edition Aspen Publishers, 2011, ISBN 9780735584488.

Robert Cooter and Thomas Ulen, Law and Economics, Sixth Edition, Addison Wesley 2013, ISBN 9780132540650

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. Limit your writing to two pages.

1. Property: Who Gets What Orbits, Asteroids, and Sunlight?
2. Contract: What remedy or damages for cuckoldry leading to kid?
3. Crime: Should private bounty hunters detect and prosecute crime?

• Quizes: 27Sept,20Oct,17Nov
• Defended Opinions: 20Oct,17Nov,8Dec
• Final: Dec 13, 10:30am-1:15pm.

Week	Text Chapters	Lecture Topics	Notes
30 Aug, 1 Sept	F1-3, P1-2, C1-2	Law Intro, Econ Review	No Class Thursday
6,8 Sept	C3	Law and Legal Institutions	No Class Tuesday
13,15 Sept	F4, C4	Coasean Analysis
20,22 Sept	F5,10, P4, C4	Property
27,29 Sept	F11, C5	Property Continued	Quiz Tuesday
4, 6 Oct	F12, P5, C6	Contract
13 Oct		Contract Continued	No Classes this week
18,20 Oct	F13, P8, C7		No Class Tuesday, Quiz/Paper Thursday
25,27 Oct	F14, P6, C8	Tort	No Class Thursday
1, 3 Nov		Tort Continued	No Class Thursday
8,10 Nov	F14, P7, C9	Tort and Legal Process
15,17 Nov	C10, P16	Legal Process	Quiz/Paper Tuesday
22 Nov	F15, P10, C11	Legal Process Continued	No Class Thursday
29 Nov, 1 Dec	F18, P11, C12	Crime	No Class Thursday
6, 8 Dec	F17	Private Law	Paper Thursday
13 Dec		Final Exam, 10:30am-1:15pm.

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