Instructor: Robin D. Hanson, Assoc. Professor, Economics (rhanson@gmu.edu, http://robinhanson.com)
Office Hours: Officially Thursday 5:00-7:00pm, 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.

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 replace public police and prosecutors in detecting and prosecuting crime?

• Quizes: 18Feb,03Mar,07Apr
• Defended Opinions: 03Mar,07Apr,28Apr
• Final: 05May.

Week	Text Chapters	Lecture Topics
19,21 Jan	F1-3, P1-2, C1-2	Law Intro, Economics Review
26,28 Jan	F4, C3,4	Institutions & Coasean Analysis No Class All Week
2,4 Feb	F5,10, P4, C4	Property
9,11 Feb	F11, C5	Property
16,18 Feb	F12, P5, C6	Contract No Class Tuesday
23,25 Feb	F13, P8, C7	Contract
1,3 Mar		Contract
8,10 Mar		Spring Break
15,17 Mar	F14, P6, C8	Accident
22,24 Mar		No Class This week
29,31 Mar	F14, P7, C9	Accident
5,7 Apr	F15, P10, C11	Crime
13,14 Apr	F18, P11, C12	Crime
19,21 Apr	C10, P16	Legal Process No Class Tuesday
26,28 Apr	F17	Private Law No Class Tuesday
3 May		No Class
5 May, 9:45-11:45am		Final Exam.

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