Law and Economics

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This course (which fits in every master programme) introduces students to the economic analysis of law, commonly known as law & economics (L&E). In applying economic concepts to legal rules and rulings, L&E attempts to determine efficient law or to point out the trade-off between efficiency and social values such as distribution, fairness, sustainability and non-discrimination. L&E is on the curriculum of every major law school in the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world. The field of L&E counts many prestigious scholarly journals and received general recognition when Ronald Coase, one of the founding fathers of L&E, won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1991. In an ever-growing number of court decisions as well as in professional journals and in policymaking, the results of L&E research are put to their use. This course teaches students to assess which legal instrument is best designed to deal efficiently with a social problem and how different allocations of legal rights affect efficiency and distribution. All domains of the law are suitable for economic analysis. For example, with respect to tort law an important question is how this law can contribute to reach a minimisation of total accident costs. Other topics discussed in this course include the economics of contract law, crime, intellectual property rights, competition law, insurance, corporate governance, public law, and federalism (harmonisation of laws). Students are also invited to ask the teachers to apply law and economics to any area of law they are interested in, so students can benefit most from this course.