Liberty Fund Books

Description

Gordon Tullock’s innovative scholarship in law and economics shines in this volume. It includes, in full, his famous book The Logic of Law, the first book to analyze the law from the perspective of economics. It also includes an influential and controversial monograph, The Case against the Common Law, the best chapters from his book, Trials on Trial, as well as a sequence of influential articles in the field of law and economics.

Charles K. Rowley is Duncan Black Professor of Economics at George Mason University and a Senior Fellow of the James M. Buchanan Center for Political Economy at George Mason University. He is also General Director of the Locke Institute.

The entire series includes:

Volume 1: Virginia Political Economy
Volume 2: The Calculus of Consent
Volume 3: The Organization of Inquiry (November 2004)
Volume 4: The Economics of Politics (February 2005)
Volume 5: The Rent-Seeking Society (March 2005)
Volume 6: Bureaucracy (June 2005)
Volume 7: The Economics and Politics of Wealth Redistribution (July 2005)
Volume 8: The Social Dilemma: Of Autocracy, Revolution, Coup d'Etat, and War (December 2005)
Volume 9: Law and Economics (December 2005)
Volume 10: Economics without Frontiers (January 2006)

Table of Contents

Introduction, by Charles K. Rowley ix

THE LOGIC OF THE LAW
Preface 3

PART 1. FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS
1. Law without Ethics 9
2. Fundamental Assumptions 15

PART 2. CIVIL LAW
3. Contracts, Substantive Law 37
4. Enforcement of Contracts 55
5. Anglo-Saxon Encumbrances 73
6. Accidents 98
7. Status 124

PART 3. CRIMINAL LAW
8. Motor Vehicle Offenses and Tax Evasion 137
9. Jurisprudence: Some Myths Dispelled 152
10. Jurisprudence: Some General Problems 173
11. Theft and Robbery 189
12. Fraud and Information Control 204
13. Crimes against the Person 215

PART 4. ETHICS
14. Ethics 225

Appendix A: Exceptions to the Social Contract 229
Appendix B: General Table of Symbols 235

THE ECONOMIICS OF LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
The “Dead Hand” of Monopoly (James M. Buchanan and Gordon
Tullock) 241
Does Punishment Deter Crime? 252
Two Kinds of Legal Efficiency 263
Optimal Procedure 274
Technology: The Anglo-Saxons versus the Rest of the World 291
Various Ways of Dealing with the Cost of Litigation 309
The Motivation of Judges 324
Defending the Napoleonic Code over the Common Law 339
Negligence Again 364
Welfare and the Law 380

THE CASE AGAINST THE COMMON LAW
1. Introduction 399
2. The Ideal of the Common Law 403
3. The Common Law in Public Choice Perspective 411
4. All the World’s a Stage 413
5. The Play’s the Thing 431
6. The Tragedie of the Common Law System in the United States 441
7. Why I Prefer Napoléon 449

Index 457