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Law and Economics: How can laws promote an economically efficient outcome?

This article discusses how laws can promote economically efficient outcomes and aims to equip graduates for work in the Civil Service. It explores the need for a cross-disciplinary module to address deficiencies in the economist-lawyer work relationship, focusing on areas such as understanding economic concepts, legal principles, and methodological divergence. The module would be an elective open to all students, with case study applications using cost benefit analysis.

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Law and Economics: How can laws promote an economically efficient outcome?

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  1. Law and Economics:How can laws promote an economically efficient outcome? Vindelyn Smith-Hillman Tom Bain Phil Nash

  2. Objective To better equip graduates for work in the Civil Service – Focus on law-economics relationship.

  3. Context • 1600 economists currently work across 30 government departments and agencies • 2000 lawyers currently work across 30 government department and agencies • Parliament produces 50-80 Acts each session + there are 1000 Statutory instruments - each has to be accompanied by an impact assessment

  4. Impact Assessment????

  5. An Impact Assessment is: • a continuous process to help the policy-maker fully think through and understand the consequences of possible and actual Government interventions in the public, private and third sectors; and • a tool to enable the Government to weigh and present the relevant evidence on the positive and negative effects of such interventions, including by reviewing the impact of policies after they have been implemented.

  6. Higher education intervention The introduction of a new cross disciplinary module to address identified deficiencies in the economist-lawyer work relationship.

  7. Deficiencies????

  8. Problematic areas • Understanding of economic concepts • Costs and benefits; transfers; distributional effects • Awareness of information sources • ONS statistics; Research centres • Understanding of legal principles • Structure of the legal system; procedural highlights • Methodological divergence • Law focus on the specific, economics – the general

  9. How would the module sit within existing structure/framework? • Elective that can be taken in any year • No tie-ins, i.e specific to a particular faculty or subject to any pre-requisites • Content: • Basic micro economic concepts related to market failure • Basic legal concepts relating to legal procedure • Case study application using cost benefit analysis • Providers? Joint civil service-academia?

  10. A lawyer who has not studied economics is very apt to become…. a public enemy. Justice Brandeis (1916)

  11. Sources • “Delivering High Quality Impact Assessments” available at http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/0809/high_quality_impact_assessment.aspx • Impact Assessment Library available at http://www.ialibrary.berr.gov.uk/

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