Legal History Commons^™

The Splendid Isolation Revisited: Lessons From The History Of Veterans Benefits Before Judicial Review, James D. Ridgway

James D. Ridgway

The history of warfare is grittier and more complex than that portrayed by the jingoistic news reels of old. So too, the history of veterans benefits is much more checkered and conflicted than might be suggested by slogans welcoming home the nation’s heroes. Understanding the history and origins of a complex administrative area such as veterans law is vitally important to good practice and thoughtful scholarship. However, because attorneys were not involved in the system for generations while it evolved during two centuries without the oversight of judicial review, very few practitioners or scholars today have any direct experience with …

Coase, Institutionalism, And The Origins Of Law And Economics, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

Ronald Coase merged two traditions in economics, marginalism and institutionalism. Neoclassical economics in the 1930s was characterized by an abstract conception of marginalism and frictionless resource movement. Marginal analysis did not seek to uncover the source of individual human preference or value, but accepted preference as given. It treated the business firm in the same way, focusing on how firms make market choices, but saying little about their internal workings.

“Institutionalism” historically refers to a group of economists who wrote mainly in the 1920s and 1930s. Their place in economic theory is outside the mainstream, but they have found new …