Institutional law and economics

International Review of Law and Economics, 1983

Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung

"Konventionentheoretische Perspektiven auf die politische Okonomie des Rechts. Eine Einleitung". This introduction and the contributions of this HSR Special Issue "Conventions and Law from a Historical Perspective present the conception and analysis of law from the perspective of the French institutionalist approach of the economics of convention (EC). From the pragmatic viewpoint of EC, law is regarded as an institution through which actors "identify" the situation in which they interact regularly. Law can be seen as a "guide" in the coordinations in which actors are engaged and committed. So law is not conceived as simple external constraint for economic action because law has to be interpreted and mobilized by competent actors. Therefore, EC understands law as internal to situational coordinations. From its beginnings (three decades ago), EC has included the analysis of law into its institutional research. Also from its beginnings, EC has develo...

2011

The law fulfils important functions in society, contributing to its institutional structure, its policies and resolution of disputes. Workers employed in the law are providing a service, and economics can be applied to analyse the nature of this service. Such analysis must recognise the characteristics of law, including the costs and nature of deliberation. This requires more than the use of theoretical approaches which assume exogenous preferences and no transaction costs. Rhetoric is important in law, and there may be a rhetorical dimension to economics itself. This theme has led to the thesis having two components. The first considers methodological issues in the application of theories and techniques. The second then assesses aspects of the law. Groups and group cultures are considered as influences on academic disciplines including economics, and professions such as the law, as well as shaping political activity and social beliefs. The interpretation of theory as analogy is developed to evaluate the application of theory and empirical analysis to real world issues. Crossdisciplinary material is then used to provide alternative perspectives on democracy. These aspects assist in identifying possible failures in the formulation and implementation of law. From this foundation, and using selected criteria to assess policy development, parliamentary debate leading to changed legislation is investigated and limitations identified. Characteristics are then identified for the services provided to consumers by the legal sector. Provision involves a mix of participants, including lawyers, court staff and other professions. Process and persuasion are important, and there can be game playing between opposing parties. The result may be misleading signals to others operating-in the shadow of the law‖. Overall, concerns are identified about research methods, the quality of laws, the cost and quality of legal deliberation, and implications for behaviour by others. This a relatively untapped area with much potential for further research. I wish to thank all those who, in exchanges through various media and over many years, have contributed to the stimulating environment from which the ideas in this thesis have developed. These include colleagues, students, conference and seminar attendees and others I have only-met‖ through electronic communication. My supervisors, Allan Rae and Srikanta Chatterjee, helped steer this work to the current point. Many others may be unaware of the part they have played through a suggested reference, a question raised, or an argument that they have presented. It would be hard to single out individuals, but there are a few with whom I have had a long association over many years, who have become familiar with several of the areas covered here, and whose views I respect. They include the late Gary Buurman, Paul Callister, Philip Chapman, Bernard Robertson and Bryce Wilkinson. I am grateful to Alan Bollard for seeing potential in this area at an early stage and Muriel Newman for providing close exposure to political processes. I would also like to acknowledge the part played by my children in shaping the paths I have followed. They are grown and have their own lives now, but they have left their mark on this.

The purpose of this paper is trying to reach a brief understanding and overview of the law and economics methodology through exploring its history and origin, and how it was developed. Also this paper will highlight the sub fields of the law and economic methodology and how it operates. finally, it will present the criticisms of that methodology and the counter responses to such criticisms.

Journal of Law & Policy

Economic Sociology, vol. 14, n°1, pp.4-10., 2012

The metamorphose of contemporary economies rests on a deep transformation of modes of coordination. The rationale behind this change is usually presented as the substitution. Horizontal democratic coordination of informed and responsible individuals would replace former authoritarian and paternalist politics. For their information, regulative procedures or instruments play an unprecedented role in this new political economy. This paper is dedicated to recent research on the relations between law, economies and economics, benefiting from Economies des conventions (EC) and its new developments. A first section recalls why EC is adjusted for the analysis of law in action, and made possible a long-standing cooperation with law scholars. A second section introduces new analytical developments that help to situate legal regulations among a variety of guarantees and engagements which take place in economic and social life. They contributes to the critical clarification of new normative and evaluative devices which are involved in contemporary policies, in EU in particular.

Law and Social Inquiry, 1996

[From the body of the article:] This essay explores the possibilities for a productive intellectual exchange between Law and Society scholarship and the New Institutionalism in organizational analysis. The first section of the essay provides a brief introduction to these two traditions. We then turn to the "lessons" that each tradition might learn from the other. The second section of the essay outlines several important contributions that institutional analysis might offer to Law and Society scholarship. Law and Society research generally depicts organizations as instrumentally motivated and responsive primarily to the material constraints of legal sanctions. We argue, however, that sociolegal scholars might profitably consider institutional theory's alternative image of organizations as culturally constructed and responsive primarily to the normative and cognitive constraints of legal symbols. Further, sociolegal researchers might benefit from institutional writings on the micro-sociology of individual action and on the macro-sociology of societal rule systems. The third section of the essay turns the tables, exploring the contributions that sociolegal scholarship might offer to institutional analysis. Institutional accounts often depict the law as distinctively explicit, authoritative, and coercive. We argue, however, that organizational scholars might profitably consider the Law and Society movement's alternative image of law as highly ambiguous, political, and constitutive. The closing sections of the essay seek to synthesize these various lessons. The fourth section extends our earlier arguments to suggest that the relationship between law and organizations is a highly reciprocal one: Each realm interpenetrates, transforms, and reconstitutes the other, with neither being fully exogenous nor causally prior. The brief concluding discussion goes on to speculate that such reciprocality may apply not only to legal environments but also to other institutional environments as well. If so, expanded communication between the New Institutionalism and the Law and Society tradition demands renewed scholarly attention to the complex ways in which all institutionalized rule systems are reconstructed and mediated by day-to-day organizational life.

Socio-Economic Review, 2003

International Review of Law and Economics, 1984

Social & Legal Studies, 2021

A focus on law’s role in economic activities was central to many of the classical sociologists, and it remains a key theme in the sociology of law, although no longer central. The view of capitalism as a market economy is reflected in formalist perspectives on economics, law and even sociology, and limits these understandings. Economic sociologists and institutional economists have examined the extensive institutionalisation of economic activity due to the shift to corporate capitalism since the last part of the 19th century, and have focused on law’s role in these processes. The neo-liberal phase of capitalism since the 1970s brought a renewed emphasis on property rights and market-based management, but accompanied by an enormous growth of new forms of regulation, often of a hybrid public-private character, leading to a new view of law as reflective or responsive, very different from traditional formalist perspectives. We argue that law’s role in the economy can be better understoo...