Target group

The course is designed for PhD students in law who wish to draw inspiration from theories of law and economics, and/or to include a law and economics perspective in their thesis. The course is open to all Nordic Ph.D. students of law.

Basic aims

The course aims to introduce students to the functional analysis of law, and to demonstrate its fundamental role in legal research. The course explains how game theory and equilibrium analysis may be applied in combination with standard legal methodology, and help students’ formulate their own research questions.

Programme

Lecturers

Professor of law and economics, Ph.D. Henrik Lando, CBS

Associate Professor, dr. philos. and J.S.D., Gunnar Nordén, HSN

Course organizer

Henrik Lando

Basic reading

• Analytical Methods for Lawyers, by Jackson, Kaplow, Shavell, et al. Foundation Press, 2003. Chapter 1-3, 6.5 – 6.8, 7.
•  Economic Analysis of Accident Law, by Steven Shavell, Harvard University Press,  Chapter 2.
• A note on the Coase theorem, Henrik Lando.
• The Craft of Research, by Booth, Colomb and Williams, University of Chicago Press 2003, Chapter 1-10 (inclusive), mainly 2-10.
• Alf Ross and the functional analysis of law, by Henrik Lando.

Supplementary reading (not required)

• An Introduction to Law and Economics, by Mitch Polinsky, Aspen Publishers 2003.
• Calabresi, G. and D. Melamed. 1972. Property rules, liability rules, and inalienability: one view of the cathedral. Harvard Law Review 85(6), 1089–128.

Before the course

Before the course, you are encouraged to:

• Study the required readings above
• Formulate your basic research questions, if you have not yet done so. For this purpose you should read The Craft of Research; the text will not be explained but its ideas likely to become clear when we discuss research questions.
• Also, you should formulate, if relevant, for the main situation or game addressed by your research question:
  - who the `players´ (the main actors) are
  - what their preferences are (what are they trying to achieve?, are they risk averse or risk neutral?, do they care about fairness and if so, in what way?)
  - what strategies the players can choose
• Think about the extent to which the formal legal sources (legislation, precedent, custom, but not ´real factors´) fully determine (potential) rulings within your area of law.

You should send your research questions and the description of the game, even if tentative, to hl.jur@cbs.dk two weeks before the course. If this proves difficult, please contact us.

Workload

2.5 ECTS

Registration

https://ssl1.peoplexs.com/Peoplexs22/CandidatesPortalNoLogin/Vacancy.cfm?PortalID=15442&VacatureID=933712 

Please contact Henrik Lando (hl.jur@cbs.dk) for more information.