POSTMODERN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF LAW: EXTENDING THE PRAGMATIC VISIONS OF RICHARD A. POSNER

The 30-year debate surrounding the use of economic analysis of law has received a new twist: Richard A. Posner, a founding father of EAL, has embraced a postmodern legal philosophy - legal pragmatism. Since EAL traditionally has been conceived of as a modern approach to law, Posner's embrace ge...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American business law journal 1998-09, Vol.36 (1), p.193-238
Main Author: OSTAS, DANIEL T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Economic analysis
Economic theory
Efficiency
History
Jurisprudence
Labor unions
Law
Modernism
Natural law
Objectivity
Posner, Richard A
Postmodernism
Pragmatism
Social policy
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Summary:The 30-year debate surrounding the use of economic analysis of law has received a new twist: Richard A. Posner, a founding father of EAL, has embraced a postmodern legal philosophy - legal pragmatism. Since EAL traditionally has been conceived of as a modern approach to law, Posner's embrace generates some interesting questions. What would a postmodern EAL look like? Would such a conception be useful? The article first defines modern and postmodern, distinguishing the radical versions of postmodernism from legal pragmatism. It then discusses Posner's recent writings, followed by a discussion of 3 applications designed to clarify what a postmodern EAL might look like and to illustrate the power of such an approach to illuminate law. The analysis suggest that EAL may be entering a new era open to alternative visions of human behavior and adaptive to alternative policy goals beyond wealth maximization.
ISSN:0002-7766
1744-1714
DOI:10.1111/j.1744-1714.1998.tb01019.x