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"Introduction" [2005] ELECD 124; in Backhaus, G. Jürgen (ed), "The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics, Second Edition" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005)

Book Title: The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics, Second Edition

Editor(s): Backhaus, G. Jürgen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845420321

Section Title: Introduction

Number of pages: 4

Extract:

Introduction
Jürgen G. Backhaus


This book, I am told, needs an introduction. I therefore hasten to supply a guide to
the reader who may find the volume difficult to read, and who has to be prepared
for a journey through the most varied and partly inhospitable terrain, in which the
ultimate goal and purpose of every single step can hardly be clear to him at every
moment (Steindl, 1952, p. v).

The purpose of the Companion is to provide a reference work for the active
researcher in law and economics. In so doing, care has been taken to avoid a
possible overlap with other works in the field. In particular, the Companion
does not intend to duplicate the ambitious New Palgrave, which aims to
balance its pointedly formal focus by emphasizing institutional economics
(Newman, 1998). The comprehensive set of chapters in the Companion,
mainly in the Chicago tradition of law and economics (Posner and Parisi,
1997), allows us to focus on other mainly European aspects of law and
economics and the historical sources of law and economics research, which
explains its structure (Bouckaert and de Geest, 1999).
The Companion has not only been updated and revised for its second
edition, but has also been substantially amended. Parts I­VIII cover the main
areas of law and economics, including basic issues as well as different sources
of the law, while Part IX offers 26 scholarly biographies of the key figures
involved. These biographies have been written with a view to ...