Economic Analysis of Law

Santa Clara University School of Law

Professor David Friedman

Spring 2009

 

Course Requirements

The course will have a midterm and a final. In addition, each student is expected to pick one side of a law case and present, either orally or in writing, a case for that side based on economic arguments. You may choose any case, past or present, provided that the case was not actually argued on economic grounds and is not discussed in either Law's Order or Richard Posner's Economic Analysis of Law. Oral arguments should be about ten to fifteen minutes, written arguments about three to five pages.


Syllabus

Law's Order: Webbed page images with virtual footnotes

Powerpoints: First Week, Second Week(Externalities), Third Week, Fourth Week (Risk, Ex post/Ex ante)

Fifth Week (Game theory), Sixth Week (Review), Seventh Week (property), Eighth Week (Contract) Family Law  Tort  Crime  Antitrust  Other Paths 

Recordings of classes (and pictures of whiteboard)

Lecture Notes from 2007: HTML    Word

Powerpoint from 2007: First Week  1/23-25  1/30   2/1 2/6 2/13 2/22 3/01 3/13
3/20 (Family)  3/22 (Tort) 4/3 (Criminal)  4/10 (Antitrust) 4/17 (Other Paths)
4/19 (The Tort/Crime Puzzle) 4/24 (Final Class)



Midterm Exam with Answers



Stories You Should Understand

One way of remembering ideas is by the stories that go with them--from the Bionic Burglar Alarm to the Rational Voodoo Killer. Here is a list of story titles that you may find useful. We will cover all of them by the end of the semester


Old Exams (more will be added)

Midterm Spring 1997

Midterm Fall 1995

Midterm 2000

Final Fall 1995.


Price Theory: An Intermediate Text

My Price Theory textbook is webbed; you may find parts of it useful for explaining economic concepts in more detail than the lecture and the lecture notes. They include:

Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, which present a general introduction to economics.

Chapter 11, which discusses strategic behavior, game theory, et. al.

Chapter 15, which discusses economic efficiency and related concepts.

Chapter 18, which discusses market failure problems, including externalities.

Additional chapters are available through the table of contents page.


Office Hours: Bergin 204: T/Th 3:00-3:45 and by arrangement.
Virtual office hours, via email, 24/7. I can be reached at:

ddfr@daviddfriedman.com


My Academic Page

My Home Page

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