Overview
- Enables interdisciplinary-minded researchers and practitioners to look over the rim of their own subject disciplines and beyond
- Addresses not only the philosophical substance of the demand for economic efficiency, but also introduces the modern concepts of social ethics
- Represents a well-founded academic treatise on the economic analysis of law addressing the tension between efficiency and justice
- Easy to read text, despite its analytical detail and depth
Part of the book series: Law and Philosophy Library (LAPS, volume 84)
Access this book
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
Table of contents (10 chapters)
-
Front Matter
-
Introduction
-
Front Matter
-
-
Economic Foundations
-
Front Matter
-
-
Philosophical Foundations
-
Front Matter
-
-
Wealth, Efficiency and Justice
-
Front Matter
-
-
Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
Economic analysis of law is an interesting and challenging attempt to employ the concepts and reasoning methods of modern economic theory so as to gain a deeper understanding of legal problems. According to Richard A. Posner it is the role of the law to encourage market competition and, where the market fails because transaction costs are too high, to simulate the result of competitive markets. This would maximize economic efficiency and social wealth.
In this work, the lawyer and economist Klaus Mathis critically appraises Posner’s normative justification of the efficiency paradigm from the perspective of the philosophy of law. Posner acknowledges the influences of Adam Smith and Jeremy Bentham, whom he views as the founders of normative economics. He subscribes to Smith’s faith in the market as an ideal allocation model, and to Bentham’s ethical consequentialism. Finally, aligning himself with John Rawls’s contract theory, he seeks to legitimize his concept of wealth maximization with a consensus theory approach.
In his interdisciplinary study, the author points out the possibilities as well as the limits of economic analysis of law. It provides a method of analysing the law which, while very helpful, is also rather specific. The efficiency arguments therefore need to be incorporated into a process for resolving value conflicts. In a democracy this must take place within the political decision-making process. In this clearly written work, Klaus Mathis succeeds in making even non-economists more aware of the economic aspects of the law.
Authors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Efficiency Instead of Justice?
Book Subtitle: Searching for the Philosophical Foundations of the Economic Analysis of Law
Authors: Klaus Mathis, Deborah Shannon
Series Title: Law and Philosophy Library
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9798-0
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Business and Economics, Economics and Finance (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4020-9797-3Published: 28 March 2009
Softcover ISBN: 978-90-481-8203-9Published: 28 October 2010
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4020-9798-0Published: 18 March 2009
Series ISSN: 1572-4395
Series E-ISSN: 2215-0315
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 220
Topics: Law and Economics, Theories of Law, Philosophy of Law, Legal History, Philosophy, general, Economic Theory/Quantitative Economics/Mathematical Methods, Political Science