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LS402V: LAW AND ECONOMICS: SELECTED TOPICS (2024-2025)

Last modified: 23 Jul 2024 11:08


Course Overview

This course invites students to engage with the law from an economic perspective. Why and when should property be privately, communally, or publicly owned? How can a legal system minimise the social costs of accidents? Why and to what extent do we need to regulate contracts? These are some of the questions that the course will address. Each seminar will focus on a legal topic that will be analysed through an economic lens. No prior knowledge of economics is needed.

Course Details

Study Type Undergraduate Level 4
Term First Term Credit Points 25 credits (12.5 ECTS credits)
Campus Aberdeen Sustained Study No
Co-ordinators
  • Professor Peter Cserne

What courses & programmes must have been taken before this course?

  • Either Law (LS) or Bachelor Of Laws With International Exchange (With Honours)
  • One of Programme Level 3 or Programme Level 4 or Programme Level 5
  • Any Undergraduate Programme

What other courses must be taken with this course?

None.

What courses cannot be taken with this course?

Are there a limited number of places available?

Yes

One or more of these courses have a limited number of places. Priority access will be given to students for whom this course is compulsory. Please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions for more details on this process.


Course Description

This optional course provides a non-technical introduction to the economic analysis of law. It allows Honours students to look at various fields of law studied in previous years from a new, interdisciplinary perspective.

Economic analysis is not confined to those areas of the law which are traditionally called “economic”, in the sense of commercial or business-related. Rather, it offers an analytical method for critically assessing the impact of legal rules on the behaviour of individuals and firms in virtually all areas of the law; it sees law as a mechanism to guide behaviour and focuses our attention on the incentives legal rules provide, especially in terms of the effect of these rules on social welfare.

The course has two main objectives. First, to show how and to what extent the concepts and methods of economic theory can be used to understand the effects of law on the behaviour of individuals and firms. Second, to engage students in the active use of these analytical tools in critical discussion about particular rules, doctrines and cases, especially in the law of contracts, torts, property and crime. For instance, we shall discuss commons and anticommons in IP law; information asymmetry and risk allocation in contract law; principal-agent problems in corporate governance; or the incentive effects of tort law and criminal law.

Economic methods and concepts will be introduced via examples, taken from various jurisdictions, demonstrating how its analytical tools can illuminate specific legal problems that arise not just in Scots or UK law but across modern legal systems. In this way, we will also see how economics contributes to comparative law.


Contact Teaching Time

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

Teaching Breakdown

More Information about Week Numbers


Details, including assessments, may be subject to change until 30 August 2024 for 1st term courses and 20 December 2024 for 2nd term courses.

Summative Assessments

Essay

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 60
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

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Feedback Word Count 2500
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
Sorry, we don't have this information available just now. Please check the course guide on MyAberdeen or with the Course Coordinator

Essay

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 40
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

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Feedback Word Count 1500
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
Sorry, we don't have this information available just now. Please check the course guide on MyAberdeen or with the Course Coordinator

Formative Assessment

There are no assessments for this course.

Resit Assessments

Resit Failed Elements in same format if due to extenuating circumstances

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 100
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

Look up Week Numbers

Feedback
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
Sorry, we don't have this information available just now. Please check the course guide on MyAberdeen or with the Course Coordinator

Course Learning Outcomes

Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ReflectionCreateTo communicate orally and in writing information, advice, and choices in an effective and persuasive manner.
ReflectionEvaluateTo evaluate the legal implications of economic theories, their impact on society and the alternative paths for regulation.
ConceptualUnderstandRecognise the economic issues in a legal problem and apply the economic way of thinking to analyse it.
ReflectionApplyTo analyse specific cases and apply inductively economic theories to broader legal concepts.
ProceduralAnalyseAssess the efficiency effects of legal rules and policies.

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