Last updated: 1/03/00
Office address: 6E7 Jerome Greene Hall (854-0066). E–mail: [email protected]. My spring 2000 conference hours have not been set yet. In addition, you are always welcome to call or to e-mail me for an appointment at other times.
Class meets: Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:00 am – 12:15 pm, room to be announced.Course description: This course is a basic introduction to using economic reasoning to think about the law. It considers the economic analysis of law both as a set of tools for analyzing legal rules and institutions, and as a larger jurisprudential movement. The course begins by examining the main distinctive features of the economic approach. It then turns to a variety of doctrinal and policy applications in contracts, torts, property, and other doctrinal fields. The last part of the course will consider arguments put forward by proponents and critics of law and economics regarding its merits as a general theory of law. In this part of the course, we will discuss how economic analysis relates to other goals of the legal system (including procedural fairness, legitimacy, democratic control, and justice), and the appropriate scope for its use.
The course does not presume or require any background in economics on the students' part, and students without such a background are encouraged to enroll. In the past, the class has drawn students from a wide range of backgrounds in economics, ranging from no previous exposure to some graduate study.Format and course requirements: The class format will combine lecture and discussion. Students are expected to prepare for and to participate in class discussion. Grades will be based on a three-hour proctored final examination, at a time and date to be announced. I will also take contributions to class discussion into account as a positive factor in close grading decisions.
Online resources: A copy of this syllabus, as well as copies of reading assignments, handouts and other class-related materials as they become available, can be found on the official course page on the Columbia server, at <http://www.law.columbia.edu/katz/econlaw>. This course page also includes space for your questions and comments, to which I will do my best to respond. To access this information and participate in online discussion, you will need to use a Web browser program such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Readings: The required text is Katz, Foundations of the Economic Analysis of Law (Oxford University Press, 1998). There are also a number of additional readings and cases, which are reproduced in a supplementary coursepack. In addition, A.M. Polinsky, An Introduction to Law and Economics, 2d ed. (Little, Brown: 1989), is recommended for students who desire additional background reading, and is required for those without a background in economics.
A course outline and reading list is attached. Assignments may be modified as the semester goes along.
First assignment: For the first class meeting on Monday, January 10, please read as background the Posner and Leff excerpts listed under subsection I.A. of the course outline ("Introduction to the Economic Approach"). For Wednesday, January 12, please read and be prepared to discuss the next reading by Gary Becker, listed under subsection I.B ("Behavioral Premises").