Econ 522 - Economics of Law - Spring 2009

Lectures:	Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:00-2:15 p.m., Chemistry 1351
Professor:	Dan Quint, 7428 Social Science, 263-2515, dquint@ssc.wisc.edu
Office Hours:	Wednesdays 1:30-3:30, other times by appointment
Teaching Assistant:	Chao He, che2@wisc.edu
Office Hours:	Wednesdays 10 a.m. - noon, 7231 Social Science
Final Exam:	Sunday May 10, 12:25 - 2:25 p.m., 5206 Social Science

 
 
Syllabus

Homework 1 - due at 1 p.m. SHARP on Thursday, February 19

Homework 2 - due at 1 p.m. SHARP on Tuesday, March 31

Homework 3 - due at 1 p.m. SHARP on Thursday, April 30

Sample exam questions on property law

(for sample exam questions on contract law, see homework 2 - these questions are all reflective of the type of questions I ask on exams)

Lecture Notes

Introductory Material

Lecture 1 - Introduction, the Common and Civil Law traditions, whaling, and baseballs

Lecture 2 - Efficiency, and whether (and why) we want the law to be efficient

Property Law

Lecture 3 - Static games, overview of property law, and the Coase Theorem

Lecture 4 - more Coase, Demsetz, transaction costs, and two normative approaches

Lecture 5 - remedies, Calabresi and Melamed, public and private goods

Lecture 6 - dynamic games, sequential rationality (subgame perfect equilibrium), and intellectual property

Lecture 7 - public ownership, establishing and verifying ownership, losing ownership, limitations/exceptions to property rights

Lecture 8 - unbundling; remedies; eminent domain/takings; regulation and regulatory takings

Contract Law

Lecture 9 - why contracts, the bargain theory of contracts, which promises should be enforced, efficient breach, reliance

Lecture 10 - examples of breach and reliance, foreseeable reliance, Hadley, default rules, penalty defaults (Ayres and Gertner), regulations

Lecture 11 - derogation of public policy; formation defenses and performance excuses: incompetence (but not drunkenness), duress and necessity, impossibility

Lecture 12 - misinformation; uniting knowledge and control; contracts of adhesion and unconscionability; more remedies for breach

Lecture 13 - penalty clauses; examples of breach, investment in reliance, investment in performance; the paradox of compensation

Lecture 14 - anti-insurance; timing and anticipatory breach; repeated interactions, and the endgame problem

Tort Law

Lecture 15 - a quick review of the story so far; introduction to torts, harm/causation/breach of duty

Lecture 16 - an economic model of torts: victim and injurer precaution under different liability rules

Results of the In-Class Experiment

Lecture 17 - activity levels; Shavell on accidents between businesses and strangers, business and customers; due care and the Hand Rule

Lecture 18 - the effect of errors and uncertainty; Schwartz (does tort law matter?); relaxing some of the key assumptions

Lecture 19 - vicarious liability; joint and several liability; evidentiary uncertainty and comparative negligence; the value of life; compensatory and punitive damages

Legal Process and Criminal Law

Lecture 20 - administrative and error costs, deciding whether to sue, filing costs, exchange of information

Lecture 21 - pre-trial bargaining, trials, appeals

Lecture 22 - criminal law: rational criminals, optimal deterrence, efficient (and inefficient) punishment

Lecture 23 - crime in the U.S.; should the law be efficient? and will the common law naturally tend toward efficiency?

Lecture 24 - recap of the semester and common themes

Other Fun Topics

Lecture 25 - behavioral law and economics, "tolerated lawbreaking"

Section Handouts

Handout 1 (January 30)

Handout 2 (February 6)

Handout 3 (February 13)

Handout 4 (February 20)

Handout 5 (February 27)

Handout 6 (March 6)

Handout 8 (March 27)

Handout 9 (April 3)

Handout 10 (April 17)

And if you're interested, here are links to the course materials from fall 2007 and fall 2008.