Framing the Market: Representations of Meaning and Value in Law, Markets, and Culture
Posted: 3 Aug 2003
Abstract
In this article I discuss the idea of understanding law in a market context. This is not a law and economics piece. It is written for people interested in jurisprudence; law, culture and humanities; and law and society. It is about understanding the way in which people experience the intersection of law, markets, and culture. And it acknowledges that people experience this intersection in ways that vary by such characteristics as race, gender, age, education, class, and geographic location. Consequently, we must account for these variations in seeking to understand law in a market context.
Using cultural-interpretation theory, grounded in the work of Charles Sanders Peirce, the piece explores the ambiguity of economic terms and concepts as used in legal reasoning. It explains economic analysis as an interpretive process, and argues that the use of economics in law is subjective and strategic.
The article forms a starting point for a forthcoming book that extends the themes and ideas of the piece, and provides a full primer on using economic concepts in legal reasoning. (Robin Paul Malloy, Law in a Market Context: An Introduction to Market Concepts in Legal Reasoning, forthcoming in Dec. 2003 from Cambridge University Press).
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