Challenging Coase: Socioeconomic Explanations in the First Year Contracts Course
36 Pages Posted: 11 Apr 2002
Date Written: April 2002
Abstract
Rational choice theory pervades modern legal texts, including those for first year contracts students. A number of influential judges espouse tenets of law and economics. Yet, from an empirical perspective, many of these ideas are, simply, wrong - or at least, woefully incomplete. The idea of human beings as rational, self-interested value maximizers is dangerously skewed. Instead, empirical findings from evolutionary game theory and cognitive psychology explain human behavior as motivated by a strong instinct for fairness and cooperation. My article makes the case that providing a richer, more empirically sound notion of human behavior gives students a better understanding of the function of law in general, and of the structure of contracts law in particular.
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