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How To Use Philosophy, Economics And Psychology In Jurisprudence: The Case Of Paternalism In Contract Law, Peter Cserne

Péter Cserne

In this paper I discuss the conceptual and methodological background of an economic approach to paternalism in contract law. This should serve as a case study to a more general problem: the uses and abuses of inter- and multidisciplinary research in jurisprudence, i.e. the proper scope of the non-doctrinal analysis of legal issues. Freedom of contract and paternalism are concepts eminently important in legal theory. I will argue that to evaluate this importance, legal scholarship should take into account not only political philosophy but economics and cognitive psychology as well. In the complex interrelations of empirical research, theoretical models and …

Law, Morality, And Economics: Integrating Moral Constraints With Economic Analysis Of Law , Barak Medina, Eyal Zamir

Barak Medina

Economic analysis of law is a powerful analytical methodology. However, as a purely consequentialist approach, which determines the desirability of acts and rules solely by assessing the goodness of their outcomes, standard cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is normatively objectionable. Thus, for example, it presumably approves the deliberate killing of one innocent person to save the lives of two, and the breaking of a promise whenever it would produce slightly more net benefit than keeping it.

Moderate deontology prioritizes such things as autonomy, basic liberties, truth telling, and promise keeping over the promotion of good outcomes. It holds that there are constraints …