ABSTRACT
Richard Posner himself calls his seminal book a ‘textbook’. Reading the book, one gets the impression that the author acts very much like someone who is as eager as proud to show what he detected. The sites thus visited comprise a surprisingly large number of issues rooted in public law – which is far from typical for the time when the book first was published. Irrespective of the richness there are some perspectives, which seem to be worth commenting. One refers to the little attention which is given to differences between common law and civil law. Also, in the comparison between the allocative capacity of markets and adjudication, the reservation of the author regarding self-centered actors comes as a little surprise. Moreover, given the fact that many acts are bulky and contradictory when it comes to necessary compatibility with other relevant acts, the presentation is a little straightforward. Finally, the development of fields found in the realm of public finance, public administration in particular, opens additional perspectives.
Weigel, Wolfgang, A Tribute to the Master (of Law and Economics) (18 August 2023) in Schäfer, Hans-Bernd and Vatiero, Massimiliano, 2023, Fifty years of Richard Posner’s Economic Analysis of Law: An introduction, History of Economic Ideas, XXXI.
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