Instructor: Robin D. Hanson, Associate Professor, Economics (rhanson@gmu.edu, http://hanson.gmu.edu)
Office Hours: Email me to arrange a video-chat meeting; suggest a day/time you'd like to meet.

Catalog Entry:

Econ 840 Law and Economics I. Credits: 3. Prerequisite: ECON 611 or 811 or permission of instructor. Uses economics to analyze U.S. Common-law system, evaluating efficiency and logic of evolution.

By grad school, students know the drill cold: read assignments, hear lectures, do homework, and spit it all back on the exam. Problem is, just then the game changes from grades to papers; few will care about your grades, compared to your research papers, written and published. A research paper is not a term paper, and can't be dashed off the weekend before it is due. A research paper does not offer a broad overview; it says something specific and new, even if minor, that fits in a context of other research papers.

My class is designed to aid this transition. Instead of covering many topics briefly, we cover fewer deeper. The research paper is half your grade, and can be all your grade if you want. You must choose a model paper early in the semester, write a referee report on it, and present it in class. Then meeting with me frequently one on one, we look for and then create some variation on that model paper.

• Class Participation Please contribute to class discussions.
• Homework When homework problems are assigned, they are due in class the following week. You may discuss overall issues with others, but must work out the details of each problem for yourself.
• Turn in Model Paper By Sep. 29, turn in a copy of your chosen model paper (via paper or email). This should be a published academic paper, at least remotely related to law and economics.
• Referee Report By Oct. 6, turn in a two page referee report, evaluating your model paper as if for a journal.
• Paper Concept Meeting By Oct. 20, meet with me to discuss possible concepts for your research paper. Ideally we would meet several times over the semester.
• Presentations Each student will make two presentations in class, each about five to ten minutes long. On Oct. 6, you present your referee report. On Dec. 1, you present your research paper. Slides not required, but allowed.
• Research Paper A research paper is NOT a term paper; it says something new and original, however minor. Talk to me early and often about your paper; I really can help. Research papers are due Dec. 1.
• Exams For those not taking the class all-paper, a midterm and a final exam will be given in class, with questions similar to the lectures and homework. Exams are open book, open notes.
• Grade Weights: Model paper 2%, Paper concept meeting 2%, Each presentation 2%, Referee Report 3%, Homework 4%, Midterm 15%, Final 20%, Research Paper 50%. You can elect to have your entire grade based on your research paper, but only if you tell me by Oct, 6.

Steven Shavell, Foundations of Economic Analysis of Law, Harvard University Press, 2004, ISBN 0674011554

David D. Friedman, Law's Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters, Princeton Univ. Press 2000, ISBN 0691090092.

Robert Cooter and Thomas Ulen, Law and Economics, Sixth Edition, Addison Wesley 2013, ISBN 9780132540650. Online here

Thomas Miceli, The Economic Approach to Law, Second Edition, Stanford University Press, 2009, ISBN 9780804756709

David D. Friedman, Legal Systems Very Different From Ours, unpublished. Free online!