ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book attempts to explain the origins of the field and the sources of its growth during its formative period. Law and economics can be identified today as the dominant academic discipline in understanding the rule of law in the United States and, increasingly, around the world. It informs—directs—obvious economic areas such as antitrust, regulation, and corporate organization but also all other areas of law: torts, contracts, property, and environmental law, among many others. Given the acceptance of a functional view of the role of law, law and economics emerged as the most powerful and most defensible method for implementing that approach and so has affected both government policy and the work of the academy. In the early years, Calabresi and Posner debated the importance of wealth distributional concerns in thinking about the law.
