Economic Analysis of Law

by Richard A. Posner

Many great features make this text an ideal option for your classroom:
- maintains its standing as the preeminent work in the field, covering the legal-economic perspective on all key areas, from common law to the Constitution
- presents the expertise of a highly distinguished author, pioneer in law and economics analysis
- offers accessible, lucid, and user-friendly writing and organization:
i. non-quantitative approach does not assume or require prior knowledge of economics or mathematics
ii. part and chapter organization based on legal, not economic concepts
- includes end-of-chapter sections to reinforce and extend learning through problems and suggested further readings
This edition highlights a variety of new information, keeping it timely and topical:
- the corporations chapter is revised and updated significantly in light of Enron and other corporate scandals; and Congress response in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
- an exciting new field of economics -- organizational economics -- is now included, with particular reference not only to corporations but also to nonprofits, law firms, and the judiciary
- the rapidly expanding interest in the legal regulation of national security and foreign affairs (torture issues, executive power, the USA Patriot Act, etc.) requires the addition of the interesting economic issues presented by such regulation
- expanded coverage of foreign law, of which there is increased interest, both substantive and institutional, and both national and supranational (e.g., European Union) is included throughout the book
- new insights in the chapter on contracts are drawn from the author's recent scholarly work on contractlaw
- since intellectual property is perhaps the hottest field in law today, the author incorporates some ideas from a book he recently coauthored with William Landes on the economic structure of intellectual property law
- the chapter on finance is revised and updated to reflect the growing importance of behavioral finance.
- novel legal-economic issues relating to the Internet are added to several chapters

Genres: Law, Economics, Textbooks, Philosophy

1056 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Richard Posner is Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School.

Following his graduation from Harvard Law School, Judge Posner clerked for Justice William J. Brennan Jr. From 1963 to 1965, he was assistant to Commissioner Philip Elman of the Federal Trade Commission. For the next two years he was assistant to the solicitor general of the United States. Prior to going to Stanford Law School in 1968 as Associate Professor, Judge Posner served as general counsel of the President's Task Force on Communications Policy. He first came to the Law School in 1969, and was Lee and Brena Freeman Professor of Law prior to his appointment in 1981 as a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, where he presided until his retirement on September 2, 2017. He was the chief judge of the court from 1993 to 2000.

Judge Posner has written a number of books, including Economic Analysis of Law (7th ed., 2007), The Economics of Justice (1981), Law and Literature (3rd ed. 2009), The Problems of Jurisprudence (1990), Cardozo: A Study in Reputation (1990), The Essential Holmes (1992), Sex and Reason (1992), Overcoming Law (1995), The Federal Courts: Challenge and Reform (1996), Law and Legal Theory in England and America (1996), The Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory (1999), Antitrust Law (2d ed. 2001), Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy (2003), Catastrophe: Risk and Response (2004), Preventing Surprise Attacks: Intelligence Reform in the Wake of 9/11 (2005), How Judges Think (2008), and A Failure of Capitalism: The Crisis of '08 and the Descent into Depression (2009), as well as books on the Clinton impeachment and Bush v. Gore, and many articles in legal and economic journals and book reviews in the popular press. He has taught administrative law, antitrust, economic analysis of law, history of legal thought, conflict of laws, regulated industries, law and literature, the legislative process, family law, primitive law, torts, civil procedure, evidence, health law and economics, law and science, and jurisprudence. He was the founding editor of the Journal of Legal Studies and (with Orley Ashenfelter) the American Law and Economics Review. He is an Honorary Bencher of the Inner Temple and a corresponding fellow of the British Academy, and he was the President of the American Law and Economics Association from 1995 to 1996 and the honorary President of the Bentham Club of University College, London, for 1998. He has received a number of awards, including the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Award in Law from the University of Virginia in 1994, the Marshall-Wythe Medallion from the College of William and Mary in 1998, the 2003 Research Award from the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation, also in 2003 the John Sherman Award from the U.S. Department of Justice, the Learned Hand Medal for Exellence in Federal Jurisprudence from the Federal bar Council in 2005, and, also in 2005, the Thomas C. Schelling Award from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Reviews

[Nooilforpacifists · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book -- I read the first or second edition -- the changed my life. Long before Posner became a grumpy old man, this work defined the field of law and economics, in a way that, for the first time for me, seemed to make sense of both.

[Sandeep · Rating 3 out of 5]

Posner's the master of generating plausible theories on how the world works. The assumptions of human rationality and foresight border on the absurd at times, though.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the law and economics bible. Need I say more? It is Posner’s masterpiece and is filled with theories of the highest order connecting economics to law in the most surprising ways. That being said, I would not use it as the main textbook for a modern course on Law and Economics, even the most recent edition is a bit outdated and some of Posner’s theories are half baked. But I don’t actually think any law and economics text book has accomplished that feat yet. Regardless, this book is as the epitome of a supplemental work for students who are taking are course on law & economics to read and can even function as leisure reading, it’s that smooth and that interesting.

[Adrian Fanaca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give it a little bit mire than average. The author is knowledgeable, however the book does not manage to arouse me, and I cannot recall immediately not even a big idea that can be remembered. The author tries to make an economic analysis of law. He writes about irrationality, pollution, fraud, defamation, cartels, boycotts, dumping, appeals, false advertising and hundreds of other concepts, which he analyses from an economic standpoint. However, I think this book cannot have more than 3 stars as the book is hard to read and the argumentation is not easy to understand. For a fast reader that wants super smart and quick information, this is average result.

[Mano Wijesekara · Rating 5 out of 5]

it is great one

[Elizabeth Pyjov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only read a part of this, but really liked it. Along with George P. Fletcher, Fairness and Utility in Tort Theory, 85 Harv. L. Rev. 537 (1972) and Stephen R. Perry, The Impossibility of General Strict Liability, 1 Can. J. L. & Jurisprudence 147 (1988). Thank you, Professor Alex Stein!

[María Ignacia Valdés · Rating 1 out of 5]

Si bien el tema podría haber sido entretenido, la lectura se hace demasiado difícil por lo desperso de los asuntos que trata, y por los varios errores que hay en la traducción.

[Craig Bolton]

Economic Analysis of Law by Richard A. Posner (2007)

[Rudepel Petrus · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book very comprehensive analysis for lingked economy and law

[Supriyo SB · Rating 4 out of 5]

a classic textbook that's now in its 9th edition

[Sukardi]

i want read that book