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 10A. 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. Free here

David D. Friedman, Legal Systems Very Different From Ours, unpublished. Free here!

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. I will grade on how many relevant points you can make clear.

1. Property: Who Gets What Orbits, Asteroids, and Sunlight?
2. Contract: When should who be excused from a contract that they signed, because that contract is complex?
3. Crime: Should everyone be required to buy insurance to pay if they commit a crime?

• Quizes: 25Sept,25Oct,20Nov
• Defended Opinions: 25Oct,20Nov,10Dec
• Final: Dec 18, 10:30am-1:15pm.

Week	Text Chapters	Lecture Topics	Notes
28,30 Aug	F1-3, P1-2, C1-2	Law Intro, Econ Review
4,6 Sep	F4,C3,4	Institutions and Coasean Analysis	No Class Tuesday
11,13 Sep	F5,10,P4,C4	Property
18,20 Sep	F11, C5	Property Continued
25,27 Sep	F12, P5, C6	Contract	Quiz Tuesday
2,4 Oct	F13, P8, C7	Contract continued
9,11 Oct			No Class This Week
16,18 Oct	F14, P6, C8	Tort
23,25 Oct			No Class Tuesday, Quiz/Paper Thursday
30 Oct, 1 Nov	F14, P7, C9	Tort Continued
6,8 Nov	C10, P16	Legal Process
13,15 Nov	F15, P10, C11	Crime	Snow Thursday
20,22 Nov			Quiz/Paper Tuesday, No Class Thursday
27,29 Nov	F18, P11, C12	Crime Continued
4, 6 Dec	F17		no class this week
10 Dec	F17	Private Law	Paper Due
18 Dec		Final Exam, 10:30am-1:15pm.