Regulating the Economy

Catalog description

This course is designed to introduce students to the law and economics of the regulatory state and the challenges to governance posed by the regulatory state. Students will be expected to develop an understanding of key legal principles as well as to apply economic analysis to legal rules. For each of the topics, a discussion of legal principles will be paired with the relevant economic analysis. The first part of the course treats classic topics of law and economics. The aim here is to provide the key foundational material in contracts, torts, property, and administrative procedures. The questions to be addressed are the specifics of the legal rules and their impact on economic efficiency and welfare, broadly defined. These tools are necessary in order to understand why there may need to be further government regulation. The second part focuses on administrative law and the regulatory state. It will focus on why laws are written so as to permit action for regulatory agencies; the procedures that agencies and courts follow for regulations; and the limits of regulatory authority. There will be a careful look at case studies illustrating these principles.