|
Lecturer(s)
|
-
Růžičková Dora, Ing. Ph.D.
-
Filipec Ondřej, Mgr. et Mgr. Ph.D.
|
|
Course content
|
1. Law as a system of rules in society. The relationship between legal, economic, and political institutions. The impact of institutions on economic development. Comparison of the effects of different legal cultures on economic performance. 2. Design of legal norms and economic efficiency. Behavior and incentives of actors within legal systems, rationality of decision-making. The interaction between law and the political system. 3. Impact analysis of legal regulations. Experiments in the implementation of legislation. Unintended effects of rules. Cost-benefit analysis of the impacts of introducing regulations for political decision-making. 4. Law and market failure. Public goods. Examples of solutions to negative externalities and instruments of environmental economics. Taxes, regulation, and emissions trading versus injunctions and damages. 5. The Coase theorem and transaction costs. Core concepts of economic analysis of law applied to situations such as neighborhood disputes, extortion, and overuse of common resources. 6. Economic analysis of property rights. Benefits and costs of ownership, the right to use or to exclude. Cooperative and individual ownership, intellectual property. Examples of speculative domain name ownership, consent of apartment owners in homeowners' associations, and the question of "who owns the forest." 7. Contracts and dispute resolution. Risks of long-term contracts, contractual mechanisms, examples of employment and lease agreements. Out-of-court settlement as an alternative to judicial proceedings. 8. Contracts and fraud, mistakes, and asymmetric information. Supporting mechanisms for contractual relationships, allocation and prevention of risk, insurance, and the role of formal and mainly informal sanctions. 9. Accidents and liability. Traffic accidents, collisions with wildlife, harm caused by negligence or business operations. Liability of hospitals and economic methods for valuing harm to life and health. 10. Economic analysis of litigation. Private and social costs of going to court versus settling out of court. Practices from Czech and international law firms. 11. Economics of crime and the shadow economy. Nash's game theory: To steal or not to steal? Efficiency of penalties, and regulation of drugs, prostitution, and gambling. 12. Economics of taxation. Effects of taxes on the behavior of firms and individuals, administrative and compliance costs. Effectiveness of subsidies, bonuses, and incentives. Considerations of an optimal tax system and the example of property taxation.
|
|
Learning activities and teaching methods
|
|
Dialogic Lecture (Discussion, Dialog, Brainstorming), Work with Text (with Book, Textbook), Group work
|
|
Learning outcomes
|
The aim of the course is to show students how legal rules actually operate in economic reality, how they shape the behavior of individuals, companies, and the state, and what kinds of costs or incentives they create. Using economic analysis, we will examine when the law leads to efficient and fair outcomes, and when it instead generates unnecessary costs and injustice. We will not lock ourselves in a theoretical laboratory or examine law and economics separately through the magical formula of ceteris paribus. Instead, we will treat law and economics as interconnected forces that mutually shape one another: legal regulation influences economic behavior, while economic and political interests, in turn, shape the law. The course will focus on topics such as the economic analysis of property rights, liability for damages, contractual relationships, criminal law, and the efficiency of the tax system. The surprising effect of informal sanctions. Through discussions, presentations, and work with real cases from the Czech Republic, abroad and from students home countries, we will jointly assess the impacts of legal rules and explore how to set them in an optimal way.
Students will learn to think in law-and-economics terms, assess legal rules in relation to both fairness and economic efficiency, and anticipate their practical impacts. They will develop the skills to formulate and present their own positions and gain an understanding of why the economic perspective is essential for the creation and evaluation of modern law.
|
|
Prerequisites
|
Knowledge of English, Legal and Economics terminology
|
|
Assessment methods and criteria
|
Student performance
Active participation in discussions, simulations, brainstorming and presentation of chosen topics.
|
|
Recommended literature
|
-
Cooter, R., Ulen, T. (2011). Law and Economics -6th edition.
-
Polinsky, A., M. (2011). An Introduction to Law and Economics -4th edition.
-
Posner, R. (2014). Economic Analysis of Law -9th edition.
-
Shavell, S. (2004). Foundations of Economic Analysis of Law..
|