Economic Analysis of Law

by Richard A. Posner

Posner, Richard A.

Genres: Law, Economics, Textbooks, Philosophy

787 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 -- that 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.

This book convinced me to add a second college major and, ultimately, never to use my engineering degree but instead go to law school. As a result, though now fully retired, I had a fortune career I hardly deserved. The trick was telling engineers I was an economist, economists I was a lawyer, and lawyers I was an engineer. This was deliberate: engineers don’t respect economists; economists hate lawyers; and lawyers think engineers are dweebs. Each of them are right, but the dodge supplied sufficient protective coloration not just to avoid being hunted for sport, but to be in the right place at the right time for 45 years of international travel, including two long-ish stints in living abroad (Armenia, and a Gulf State), and two shorter stints in Japan and France. Of all those, I can’t claim to speak any of the relevant languages, but (at that time) could read legal-technical French, which was all that was required.

It’s too deterministic to assign all the credit to Posner, who really is an odd Economist and an odd lawyer. But I would have sucked as an electrical engineer, so other than the ability to translate technical jargon to readable prose, I never was one. But space and international telecommunications would have been far more difficult without the three degrees so, thanks, retired Seventh Circuit Judge Posner.

If any of that sounds interesting, it’s a great intro.

[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