Law and Economics - HSSO3

• Title: Law and Economics
• Guaranteed by: International Office (22-ZO)
• Faculty: Faculty of Law
• Actual: from 2023
• Semester: summer
• Points: 0
• E-Credits: 5
• Examination process: summer s.:
• Hours per week, examination: summer s.:1/0, Ex [HT]
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment
• Guarantor: Sven Hoeppner, M.Sc., LL.M., Ph.D.
• Teacher(s): Sven Hoeppner, M.Sc., LL.M., Ph.D.

Annotation

English

Last update: Ing. Svatava Marešová (17.01.2023)

Annotation:

This course offers an introduction to the basic concepts of law and economics. The course provides an overview on classical methods of law and economics and the departures from those classical concepts.

The course is organized along two lines. First, the course introduces basic concepts about, e.g., human behavior according to the economic model, institutions and their typology, economcis as a toolkit. Second, the course applies these basic concepts to various legal context and, in so doing, highlights how the classcial economic model evolves in order to make meaningful predictions about rule-subjected individuals.

The course is designed with law students in mind, who did not have much exposure to economics.

Czech

Last update: doc. Mgr. Bc. Libor Dušek, Ph.D. (18.01.2020)

The course
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.

Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
-understand the key concepts of the economic analysis of law (Coase theorem, incentives, efficient breach etc. )
-learn how legal arrangements enable or impede the functioning of markets
-acquire the skills to assess the role of legal rules in reaching socially efficient outcomes


Important information about the prerequisites: The course requires prior knowledge of economics at the level of an introductory microeconomics course (e.g., Mankiw, G.: Principles of Economics, chapters 1-19). For the Faculty of Law regular master students, this implies that they should have completed the course Theory of national economy I. Throughout the classes and exams, we will presume that the students have the requisite knowledge of this material.

Requirements to the exam

Last update: Ing. Svatava Marešová (17.01.2023)

Exam:

The exam will consist of a 24-hour take home exam. Students will receive the exam by email. Students must return a PDF file with their answers 24-hours later. This is a sharp deadline. While active class participation is strongly encourages and generally leads to a far better result, there are no pre-requisites to undertake the examination.

Means of communication:

Communication between lecturer and students about organizational and administrative issues will happen in-class. Moreover, students and lecturer will communicate by email. All materials will be provided digitally.

Syllabus

Last update: Ing. Svatava Marešová (17.01.2023)

Syllabus:

Lecture 1: Introduction Lecture 2: Microeconomic paradigm and core concepts  Lecture 3: Economic theory of property law  Lecture 4: Economic theory of contract law (1/2)  Lecture 5:  Economic theory of contract law (2/2) Lecture 6: Economic theory of tort law (1/2) Lecture 7: Economic theory of tort law (2/2) Lecture 8: Economic theory of Crime Lecture 9: Economics of litigation

Lecture 10: Economic theory of international law

Course Goals:

Upon successful completion of the course, participants should: -          obtain a general understanding of important law and economics concepts and methods; -          should possess the knowledge and skills to recognize the economic issue in a legal proplem; -          should be qualified to systematically engage a basic economic analysis of a legal problem.