Alain Marciano – författare

This book brings together the most authoritative articles on Law and Economics and the interaction between the two disciplines as well as the use of economic tools to analyse legal problems. Aimed at students experiencing the subject for the first time, the selections are interlaced with a wealth of features including explanatory introductions and exercises.

Key features of the reader include:

- The accessibility of the material: the articles should be understandable to those with only a limited background in economics and law.

- The book’s focus on the most important and basic – foundational – issues in law and economics.

- An exposition of the opposition between the different legal systems that exist in the world including common law, civil law and public law.

- Debates viewed from the perspective of the scholars from a range of backgrounds are presented as well as all the key figures in economics and in law.

The book should prove to be an essential resource to all students studying this burgeoning field and represents an exciting introduction to one of the key disciplines which has grown up in the social sciences in recent times.

This book brings together the most authoritative articles on Law and Economics and the interaction between the two disciplines as well as the use of economic tools to analyse legal problems. Aimed at students experiencing the subject for the first time, the selections are interlaced with a wealth of features including explanatory introductions and exercises.

Key features of the reader include:

- The accessibility of the material: the articles should be understandable to those with only a limited background in economics and law.

- The book’s focus on the most important and basic – foundational – issues in law and economics.

- An exposition of the opposition between the different legal systems that exist in the world including common law, civil law and public law.

- Debates viewed from the perspective of the scholars from a range of backgrounds are presented as well as all the key figures in economics and in law.

The book should prove to be an essential resource to all students studying this burgeoning field and represents an exciting introduction to one of the key disciplines which has grown up in the social sciences in recent times.

James M. Buchanan, a prominent political economist of the 20th century and a Nobel laureate in economics, was a founding thinker of the public choice tradition and was instrumental in the reintroduction of politics into economic analysis. He was also an intellectual entrepreneur who developed new and innovative centers for research, graduate programs, and outlets for academic publication. Having taught at a variety of institutions, including the University of Tennessee, Florida State University, the University of Virginia, and Virginia Tech, he moved the Center for Study of Public Choice to George Mason University in 1983, where he remained for the rest of his academic career. After his passing in 2013, the Special Collections Research Center for the Mason University Libraries began to compile a formal archive, the James M. Buchanan Papers, documenting Buchanan''s contributions to social science and his intellectual legacy.

This volume, The Soul of Classical Political Economy: James M. Buchanan from the Archives, edited by Peter J. Boettke and Alain Marciano, provides a unique window into not only the man, the scholar, and the teacher, but also the fields of public choice and public economics that Buchanan advanced over his productive and esteemed career. The sections in this volume correspond to important themes for understanding Buchanan''s views on political economy as a social philosophy. The editors illustrate Buchanan''s views by using archival material-most of it original and previously unpublished-and offering context as a guide through the evolution of Buchanan''s expansive scholarship that took place over roughly seven decades and spanned the fields of philosophy, politics, and economics. This volume is essential reading for anyone interested in Buchanan''s work, in public choice theory, and in the continuing study of political economy.

This volume traces the evolution of the field of law and economics from its European roots to its neoclassical “Chicagoan” period to its current identity as a more fluid, transatlantic discipline.  Paying special attention to the work of German economist Juergen Backhaus, who was instrumental in the reintroduction of the European perspective to the field,  this book analyzes this gradual shift in the law and economics debate and provides a state-of-the-art of the literature currently being produced by the field’s most active scholars. Beginning with a discussion of the history of the field and Backhaus’ role in its development, the volume provides a survey of issues central to the current debate such as legal processes in both Europe and the U.S., constitutional political economy, regulatory law, and the ongoing evolution of the European Union. The importance of this volume is two-fold, as it firmly grounds the discipline in history while establishing a future research agenda. This book will be of use to researchers studying law and economics as well as those interested in institutional analysis.