ABSTRACT
The five elementary concepts or principles of economic theory, at least four are functional to the science of law, namely, Scarcity, Futurity, Custom and Sovereignty. A fifth concept of economics, Efficiency, connects that science with the physical sciences. The common law evolves in proportion as the courts decide disputes in accordance with the common practices of these several classes deemed to be good and proper. Perhaps this notion does a little violence to a certain notion that the common law is the primitive custom of England, as suggested in the distinction between the common law and the law merchant. The science of law, which studies the rules laid down for the guidance of conduct, is also a science wherein that ultimate mystery, Time, reveals itself as Future Time. The science of economics, unlike the physical sciences, has two systems of measurements, a quantity measurement and a scarcity measurement, while the law adds the measurement of “reasonableness.”.
