Instructor: Robin D. Hanson, Assoc. Professor, Economics (rhanson@gmu.edu, http://hanson.gmu.edu)
Office Hours:Tu/Th 1:30-3pm, or email me to suggest day/time to meet.

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 2000, ISBN 0691090092. Free online here.

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 online here

David D. Friedman, Legal Systems Very Different From Ours, 1793386722. 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.
• Quizzes Three in-class quizzes will given. Each quiz only takes up half of a lecture period. Each quiz will emphasize the lectures and text readings since the previous quiz. Quizzes 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. TBD
2. TBD
3. TBD

• Quizes: 19Sep,10Oct,14Nov.
• Defended Opinions: 10Oct,14Nov,3Dec
• Final: Dec 12, 1:30-4:15pm

Week	Text Chapters	Lecture Topics	Notes
27,29 Aug			No Class This Week
3,5 Sep	F1-4,P1-2,C1-4	Intro
10,12 Sep	F5,10,P4,C4	Property
17,19 Sep	F11,C5	Property	Quiz Thursday
24,26 Sep	F12,P5,C6	Contract
1,3 Oct	F13,P8,C7	Contract
8,10 Oct	F14,P6,C8	Tort	Paper/Quiz Thursday
15,17 Oct	F14,P7,C9	Tort	No Class Thursday
22,24 Oct		Tort
29,31 Oct	C10,P16	Legal Process
5,7 Nov	C10,P16	Legal Process
12,14 Nov	F15,P10,C11	Crime	No Class Tue., Paper/Quiz Thur.
19,21 Nov	F15,P10,C11	Crime	No Class Thursday
26,28 Nov	F18,P11,C12	Crime
3,5 Dec	F17	Private Law	Paper Due Tuesday
12 Dec		Final Exam	1:30-4:15pm