UiB : Juridisk
Fakultet : Reglementer
JUS340
Economic Analysis of Law – 15 credits
Literature altered
by Studieutvalget on April 24th 2007.
Course description
Three week block course (language: English), August 2007
Addressees: 3rd/4th year; foreign, postgraduate and doctoral students
Economic analysis of law is the most advanced methodological tool for
legal policy making and structural analysis of existing and future legal
institutions and contract planning. Legal rules, codified or judge-made,
and contracts are scrutinized under aspects of allocational efficiency
including transaction costs, the problems of externality and risk, distributional
consequences and incentive compatibility.
The course starts with an outline of the general concepts of standard
micro-economic analysis and its extensions by the new institutional and behavioral
economics in their application to legal rules and private arrangements. Three
applications are treated in the first part: tort, contract, and corporation
law. This first part is taught by Prof. Schanze.
The second part, taught by Prof. Rubinfeld, turns to antitrust policy and law as a qualified
example for the application of economic analysis to a central field of market
regulation. It will outline the theoretical development of antitrust and
its implications for present antitrust enforcement. The main references will
be US cases, but the European situation is reflected throughout.
This second part can also be attended separately by specialists of antitrust
litigation and enforcement, and interested economists without following the
first part.
Literature:
Richard A. Posner, Economic Analysis of Law 6th ed 2003.
Mitchell A. Polinsky, Introduction to Law and Economics 3rd ed 2004.
Daniel Rubinfeld and Robert Pindyck, Microeconomics 6th ed 2004.
Daniel Rubinfeld, "Antitrust Policy," International Encyclopedia
of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, www.iebs.com
“
Maintenance of Monopoly: U.S. v. Microsoft,” in John E. Kwoka. Jr. and
Lawrence J. White, eds., THE ANTITRUST REVOLUTION, 4th Edition, 2004 (New York:
Oxford University Press), pp. 476-501.
The U.S. DOJ/FTC Horizontal Merger Guidelines.
More detailed reading list with links at a later date.
Exam: Written school exam.
