Giovanni Battista Ramello – författare

This Encyclopedia offers a concise introduction to law and economics, a thriving and continuously evolving field. While other valuable resources already provide numerous essays on specific topics, this encyclopedia is original, differing from—and complementing—existing encyclopedias and companions in four respects. First, to cover as many aspects and dimensions of law and economics as possible, it includes a large number of relatively short chapters. Second, many of these chapters explore the boundaries between law and economics and related fields such as public choice, institutional economics, transaction cost economics, and industrial economics. Third, the encyclopedia allocates space for historical and methodological chapters focusing on the founders of the field and on important scholars who, directly or indirectly, contributed to shaping law and economics as it is today. This new edition aims to expand these distinctive features. Its goal is to cover even more areas within law and economics—particularly by addressing issues raised by big data and new technologies—to deepen the interdisciplinary dimension of the field and to include additional historical and methodological chapters. The second edition includes 150 additional entries compared to the first edition, with most of the existing chapters updated. This results in a broader and more up-to-date coverage of law and economics.

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.