Economic Analysis of Property Law Cases

The discipline of law and economics has earned a reputation for developing plausible and empirically testable theories on the social functions and the impact of legal institutions. Property rights are a field in which this has been very successful. In this book, economic property rights theories are applied to case law in order to examine the practice and solution of real life conflicts.

The authors examine the economic problems which are dealt with in these cases and evaluate the courts' decisions from an economic angle. Cases are examined from across Europe, the UK and the US to allow international comparisons to be made. These comparisons reveal that, regardless of the legal system, many legal issues have similar economic roots and therefore similar models of economic analysis can be applied. But the analysis of these cases shows that the discipline of law and economics is not only successful in developing explanatory models but is also a useful approach for solving legal conflicts in individual cases. This book aims to bridge the gap between the academic and professional literature and demonstrate the benefits of the economic analysis of individual property rights cases to all those who are interested in law and economics.