Law and Economics - And Why New Zealand Needs it
New Zealand Business Law Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 151, 2002
Victoria University of Wellington Legal Research Paper Series Richardson Paper No. 65
29 Pages Posted: 1 Oct 2012 Last revised: 21 Feb 2015
Date Written: 2002
Abstract
The so-called Chicago School of law and economics, which emerged in the late 1970s, was regarded by many lawyers with considerable suspicion. Much of this suspicion was due to the artificial and unrealistic nature of the assumptions about human motivation that underpinned that School’s analysis. In the present paper, first delivered at the New Zealand Law Conference at Christchurch in October 2001, Sir Ivor Richardson reviews developments in the law and economics movement and highlights the growing sophistication of the economic analysis that can be brought to bear on legal issues. In Sir Ivor’s view, neither judges nor lawmakers should make laws without regard to the full benefits and costs of those laws. He suggests that while economics alone cannot dictate their outcome, economics has an important role to play in a wide variety of cases.
Keywords: law and economics, Chicago School, economic analysis, cost benefit analysis, lawmaking, judicial decision-making
JEL Classification: A12, D78, K00, K10, K11, K12, K13, K30, K40
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation