Description
Book SynopsisPosner uses economic analysis to probe justice and efficiency, primitive law, privacy, and the constitutional regulation of racial discrimination.
Trade ReviewRichard Posner is the leading pioneer in the relatively new field known loosely as ’law and economics’… [He] is in the thick of the intellectual battles about the kind of world we live in, and the kind we want to create. -- Thomas Sowell * Fortune *
The book is a testimony to the range of Posner’s competence and interest. It is nicely written and accessible to anyone familiar with the particular legal issues he discusses, with the general problem of justice, or with tools of economic analysis. -- Jules Coleman * Stanford Law Review *
This is a remarkable collection of essays… Few can match the breadth of scholarship and the incredible originality of Richard Posner’s work. -- Thomas S. Ulen * Wall Street Review of Books *
Table of Contents1. An Introduction to the Economics of Nonmarket Behavior The Plan of the Book PART I: Justice and Efficiency 2. Blackstone and Bentham Blackstone's Commentaries Bentham's Antipathy to Blackstone Blackstone and Bentham Compared 3. Utilitarianism, Economics, and Social Theory Some Problems of Utilitarianism Wealth Maximization as an Ethical Concept 4. The Ethical and Political Basis of Wealth Maximization The Consensual Basis of Efficiency Implications for the Positive Economic Analysis of Law Dworkin's Critique of Wealth Maximization PART II: The Origins of Justice 5. The Homeric Version of the Minimal State A Taxonomy of Limited Government Government and Political Values in Homer The Homeric Social Order Homeric Individualism Some Modern Parallels The Theory of the State 6. A Theory of Primitive Society The Costs of Information A Model of Primitive Society Other Primitive Adaptations to High Information Costs 7. The Economic Theory of Primitive Law The Legal Process Property Contracts Family Law The System of Strict Liability in Tort Criminal Law 8. Retribution and Related Concepts of Punishment From Revenge to Retribution, and Beyond Pollution: Retribution against Neighbors and Descendants Guilt versus Responsibility PART III: Privacy and Related Interests 9. Privacy as Secrecy The Economics of Private Information and Communications The Tort Law of Privacy 10. A Broader View of Privacy The Etymology of Privacy: Seclusion and Autonomy Evidence for the Economic Theory of Privacy The Common Law and the Economic Theory of Privacy Defamation and Disparagement The Statutory Privacy Movement 11. The Privacy Jurisprudence of the Supreme Court Privacy Cases before Griswold The Griswold Decision Privacy in the Supreme Court since Griswold Conclusion PART IV: The Supreme Court and Discrimination 12. The Law and Economics of Discrimination 13. The DeFunis Case and Reverse Discrimination The Reasonableness of Reverse Discrimination The Constitutional Issue 14. Bakke, Weber, and Beyond Bakke Weber Index
