1st Edition

The Legal-Economic Nexus Fundamental Processes

By Warren Samuels Copyright 2007
    510 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    510 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Providing another key contribution to the immensely popular field of law and economics, this book, written by the doyen of the history of economic thought in the US, explores the dynamic relationship between economics, law and polity.

    Combining a selection of old and new essays by Warren J. Samuels that chart a number of key themes, it provides an important commentary on the development of an academic field and demonstrates how policy is structured and manipulated by human social construction. The areas covered include:

    • the role of manufactured belief
    • power
    • the nature and sources of rights
    • the construction of markets by firms and governments and the problem of continuity and change in the form of the question of the selectively defined status quo and its status
    • the absolutist character of government, rights, markets and legal principles and the accepted ideational structure of law.

    The Legal-Economic Nexus is an essential read both economists and legal professionals as well as those researching the history of economic thought and the social construction of law.

    Part 1: Rights, Markets and Power: The Legal-Economic Nexus 1. Introduction: Belief and Power 2. The Legal-Economic Nexus 3. The Nature and Sources of Rights 4. Markets and their Social Construction Part 2: The Problem of Order 5. Joseph J. Spengler's Concept of the 'Problem of Order': A Reconsideration and Extension 6. The Status of the Status Quo: The Buchanan Colloquium 7. The Problem of the Status of the Status Quo: Some Comments 8.Two Views of Government: A Conversation Part 3: Language, Social Choice and Order 9. Some Problems in the Use of Language in Economics 10. Poletown and Hathcock : An Essay on Some Problems in the Language of the Law 11. An Evolutionary Approach to Law and Economics 12. The Rule of Law and the Capture and Use of Government in a World of Inequality Part 4: Land and Governance: The Transformation of Order 13.The Duke of Argyll and Edwin L. Godkin as Precursors to Hayek on the Relation of Ignorance to Policy, Parts I-IV 14.The Duke of Argyll and Henry George: Land Ownership and Governance Part 5: The Subtleties of Policy Making 15. The Pervasitve Proposition, 'What is, is and Ought to Be': A Critique 16. What is, is What? 17. Professional Policy Advocacy or Policy Diffidence?

    Biography

    Warren Samuels