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Parisi, Frencesco --- "Positive, Normative and Functional Schools in Law and Economics" [2005] ELECD 128; 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: Chapter 4

Section Title: Positive, Normative and Functional Schools in Law and Economics

Author(s): Parisi, Frencesco

Number of pages: 16

Extract:

4 Positive, normative and functional schools in
law and economics
Francesco Parisi


Various important methodological questions have accompanied the growth
and evolution of law and economics. Economists and jurists alike have de-
bated the appropriate role of economic analysis in the institutional design of
lawmaking and the limits of methods of evaluation of social preferences and
aggregate welfare in policy analysis. In many respects, these methodological
debates have contributed to the growing intellectual interest and to the diver-
sification of methodologies in the economic analysis of law.

The origins and the evolved domain of law and economics
Law and economics is probably the most successful example of the recent
surge of applied economics into areas that were once regarded as beyond the
realm of economic analysis and its study of explicit market transactions.
Methodologically, law and economics applies the conceptual apparatus and
empirical methods of economics to the study of law.

The origins of modern law and economics
Extensive research has been carried out to identify the historical and antece-
dents to modern law and economics. Indeed, this volume contains several
biographical entries devoted to precursors and early European exponents of
the law and economics movement. It is interesting to see that, although the
recognition of law and economics as an independent field of research is the
result of studies carried out in the United States after the 1970s, most of the
precursors can be found in Europe. Notable antecedents to law and econom-
ics include the work of Adam ...