CEP215 | Economic Analysis of private law

Students at NLS have generally studied introductory topics in micro and macroeconomics. However, their curriculum does not have sufficient exposure to the discipline known as law and economics, i.e., the application of economic principles to understand and explain legal doctrines. The field’s origins lie in American jurisprudence (e.g., the Hand Rule, the Brandeis method, etc.) Its modern iteration owes its spark largely to Ronald Coase’s seminal essay, The Problem of Social Cost.

In this course, students will read texts that apply the principles of microeconomic thinking to the core tenets of private law. The course is based around a set of readings on three areas of private law: tort law, contract law and property law. The pedagogical approach is based around seminar-style discussions. The course has four broad modules — an introductory module to the field of law and economics, a module on the economics of tort law, one on the economics of contract law, and a final module on the economics of property law.

The course is open to students from the 4th and 5th year of the 5-year B.A. LL.B (Hons) program; the 3rd year of the 3-year LLB (Hons.) program; as well as students of the LL.M and MPP courses