Law and Economics in the Legal Academy or What I Should Have Said to Discipulus

Abstract

Is there a future for law and economics scholarship within the legal academy which does not involve formal modelling? To reach a positive answer to this question, I provide a brief sketch of the development of the sub-discipline, showing how, in the most recent period, the dominance of economists, working with their own agenda and career motivations, has created obstacles for the dissemination of law and economics within the legal academy and to legal policymakers more generally. I argue that drawing out and communicating to this broader readership the major insights of law and economics remain important tasks. So also, from a normative perspective, to relate efficiency analysis to whatever non-economic goals may also influence particular areas of law. Across the huge range of his publications, Michael Trebilcock has provided a model for the law and economics scholarship which I am advocating.