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Origins of Law and Economics

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  • Pearson,Heath

Abstract

This work analyzes the centrality of law in nineteenth-century historical and institutional economics and is a prehistory to the new institutional economics of the late twentieth century. In the 1830s the 'new science of law' aimed to explain the working rules of human society by using the methodologically individualist terms of economic discourse, stressing determinism and evolutionism. Practitioners stood readier than contemporary institutionalists to admit the possibilities of altruistic values, bounded rationality, and institutional inertia into their research program. Professor Pearson shows that the positive analysis of law tended to push normative discussions up from the level of specific laws to that of society's political organization. The analysis suggests that the professionalization of the social sciences - and the new science's own imprecision - condemned the program to oblivion around 1930. Nonetheless, institutional economics is currently developing greater resemblances to the now-forgotten new science.

Suggested Citation

  • Pearson,Heath, 1997. "Origins of Law and Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521581431, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:cbooks:9780521581431
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    Cited by:

    1. Helge Peukert, 2001. "The Multifaceted Balance of the Concept of Staatswissenschaften in the Tradition of the Historical School," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 113-122, September.
    2. Malcolm Rutherford, 2001. "Institutional Economics: Then and Now," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 173-194, Summer.
    3. Martin Gelter & Kristoffel Grechenig, 2014. "History of Law and Economics," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2014_05, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    4. Peter Grajzl & Peter Murrell, 2024. "From Status to Contract? A Macrohistory from Early-Modern English Caselaw and Print Culture," CESifo Working Paper Series 11246, CESifo.
    5. Helge Peukert, 2001. "Bridging Old and New Institutional Economics: Gustav Schmoller and Douglass C. North, Seen with Oldinstitutionalists' Eyes," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 91-130, March.

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