IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/copoec/v2y1991i1p107-126.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The common law process: Efficiency or order?

Author

Listed:
  • Louis Alessi
  • Robert Staaf

Abstract

The common law applies to conflicts not covered by statutes or the U.S. Constitution. Because constitutional law and common law are applicable (common) to all members of the community, they both confront aggregation problems of the sort discussed by Buchanan and Arrow. p ]Recent writings in law and economics view the common law as an efficient process that promotes the evolution of efficient rules through an auction-like mechanism. Because the common law applies to all individuals, however, the auction analogy fails to cope with the problem of aggregating preferences. Moreover, the belief that the efficiency of the common law is enhanced by assigning disputed rights so as to lower transaction costs is also flawed. The common law provides a form of unanimity by allowing individuals to contract around the rule and provides order by maintaining transitivity, through the use of precedent, in the application of the rule to new situations. Copyright George Mason University 1991

Suggested Citation

  • Louis Alessi & Robert Staaf, 1991. "The common law process: Efficiency or order?," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 107-126, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:copoec:v:2:y:1991:i:1:p:107-126
    DOI: 10.1007/BF02393228
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/BF02393228
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/BF02393228?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Smith, Adam, 1776. "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number smith1776.
    2. De Alessi, Louis, 1983. "Property Rights, Transaction Costs, and X-Efficiency: An Essay in Economic Theory," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(1), pages 64-81, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alessi Louis De, 1998. "Reflections on Coase, Cost, and Efficiency," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 5-26, March.
    2. Todd Zywicki, 2015. "Bruno Leoni's Legacy and Continued Relevance," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 30(Spring 20), pages 131-141.
    3. Eckardt, Martina, 1999. "The Evolution of the German Tort Law in the 19th Century - An Economic Analysis of the Evolution of Law," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 23, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics.
    4. Louis Alessi, 1992. "Efficiency criteria for optimal laws: Objective standards or value judgements?," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 321-342, September.
    5. William F. Shughart, 2022. "On the Virginia school of antitrust: Competition policy, law & economics and public choice," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 191(1), pages 1-19, April.
    6. Eckardt, Martina, 2004. "Evolutionary approaches to legal change," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 47, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics.
    7. Bruce Benson, 2006. "Contractual nullification of economically-detrimental state-made laws," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 19(2), pages 149-187, June.
    8. Louis De Alessi, 1994. "Reputation and the Efficiency of Legal Rules," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 14(1), pages 11-21, Spring/Su.
    9. L. Van Den Hauwe, 1998. "Evolution and the Production of Rules—Some Preliminary Remarks," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 81-117, January.
    10. William Blomquist & Elinor Ostrom, 2008. "Deliberation, learning, and institutional change: the evolution of institutions in judicial settings," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 180-202, September.
    11. Richard Wagner, 1992. "Crafting social rules: Common law vs. statute law, once again," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 381-397, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Louis Alessi, 1992. "Efficiency criteria for optimal laws: Objective standards or value judgements?," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 321-342, September.
    2. Charles M. A. Clark, 2021. "Editor’s Introduction: Economics and the Option for the Poor," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 80(4), pages 1051-1059, September.
    3. Bellemare, Marc F. & Barrett, Christopher B., 2003. "An Asset Risk Theory of Share Tenancy," Working Papers 127203, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    4. Carbonnier Cl´ement, 2014. "The incidence of non-linear consumption taxes," Научный результат. Серия «Экономические исследования», CyberLeninka;Федеральное государственное автономное образовательное учреждение высшего образования «Белгородский государственный национальный исследовательский университет», issue 1, pages 5-18.
    5. White, Reilly & Marinakis, Yorgos & Islam, Nazrul & Walsh, Steven, 2020. "Is Bitcoin a currency, a technology-based product, or something else?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    6. Ashraf, Junaid & Uddin, Shahzad, 2016. "New public management, cost savings and regressive effects: A case from a less developed country," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 18-33.
    7. Nolan Charles & Trew Alex, 2015. "Transaction Costs and Institutions: Investments in Exchange," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 15(2), pages 391-432, July.
    8. Çağatay Bircan & Ralph De Haas, 2020. "The Limits of Lending? Banks and Technology Adoption across Russia," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(2), pages 536-609.
    9. Adamson, Jordan, 2020. "Political institutions, resources, and war: Theory and evidence from ancient Rome," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    10. Figge, Frank & Hahn, Tobias & Barkemeyer, Ralf, 2014. "The If, How and Where of assessing sustainable resource use," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 274-283.
    11. Hu, Yue & Liu, Chang & Peng, Jiangang, 2021. "Financial inclusion and agricultural total factor productivity growth in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 68-82.
    12. Balland, Pierre-Alexandre & Broekel, Tom & Diodato, Dario & Giuliani, Elisa & Hausmann, Ricardo & O'Clery, Neave & Rigby, David, 2022. "Reprint of The new paradigm of economic complexity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(8).
    13. Timothy Johnson, 2015. "Reciprocity as a Foundation of Financial Economics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 43-67, September.
    14. Gilles, Robert P. & Pesce, Marialaura & Diamantaras, Dimitrios, 2020. "The provision of collective goods through a social division of labour," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 287-312.
    15. Felfe, Christina & Hsin, Amy, 2012. "Maternal work conditions and child development," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1037-1057.
    16. Robert Tartarin, 1987. "Efficacité et propriété," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 38(6), pages 1129-1156.
    17. Soete, Luc & Verspagen, Bart & ter Weel, Bas, 2010. "Systems of Innovation," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1159-1180, Elsevier.
    18. Javier Portillo & Walter Block, 2012. "Anti-Discrimination Laws: Undermining Our Rights," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(2), pages 209-217, August.
    19. Richard M. Robinson, 2018. "Friendships of Virtue, Pursuit of the Moral Community, and the Ends of Business," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 85-100, August.
    20. Stern, David I., 1997. "Limits to substitution and irreversibility in production and consumption: A neoclassical interpretation of ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 197-215, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:copoec:v:2:y:1991:i:1:p:107-126. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.