This course is designed to introduce students into a framework of institutions such as formal laws, contracts, and informal norms within which all economic activity takes place. Economic analysis will be applied to illuminate the common law areas such as torts, contracts, property or criminal law. It will examine the effect of legal rules on individual behavior, behavior of firms, consequent resource allocation, income distribution, economic growth.
Furthermore, the economic analysis will examine whether these legal rules are in line with reaching socially optimum outcomes. Prior acquaintance with principles of economics is desirable, although brief overview of the relevant economic concepts is given in the introduction.
