ABSTRACT
Law & Economics is a discipline using economic analysis to inform law and legal institutions. It has been declared as one of the most influential developments in legal thought, but also useless. It is a controversial discipline, no doubt. This paper aims to inform the discourse. It will discuss the discourse on the foundations, methods, scientific status, and implications of Law & Economics. While there are merits in much of the criticism of Law & Economics, it is also found that much of the critique is outdated and based on straw man arguments and that Law & Economics, used appropriately, continues to be useful in informing law and legal institutions. It is found that Law & Economics is most useful when it is used to support the search for the best explanation of law, which is not necessarily an efficiency explanation. Furthermore, the discipline is particularly useful in informing regulatory policy questions emerging with new technologies where traditional analytical approaches, such as analogies, are at risk of producing misguided policy recommendations.
Østbye, Peder, Is Law & Economics Useful? A Practitioner’s Take on the Discourse (February 10, 2024).
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