Law Commons^™

Guidance Rules And Enforcement Rules: A Better View Of The Cathedral, Dale A. Nance

Faculty Publications

Contemporary economic analysis of law is a product of the confluence of standard microeconomics with a legal tradition heavily influenced by American Legal Realism. The effect of this merger has been an analysis of legal institutions from the perspective of the Holmesian "bad man," who sees predicted legal actions as merely various expected material costs or benefits to be taken into account. This might be illuminating for the purposes of an "outsider," such as a sociological behaviorist or perhaps even a legal advisor alerting her "bad man" client to the risks of adverse legal consequences. But it produces bizarre results …