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Legal Precedent: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis

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William M. Landes
Richard A. Posner

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Abstract

The use of precedents to create rules of legal obligation has, to our knowledge, received little theoretical or empirical analysis. This paper presents and tests empirically an economic approach to legal precedent that is derived mainly from the analysis of capital formation and investment. We treat the body of legal precedents created by judicial decisions in prior periods as a capital stock that yields a flow of information services which depreciates over time as new conditions arise that were not foreseen by the framers of the existing precedents. New (and replacement) capital is created by investment in the production of precedents.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 0146.

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Date of creation: Aug 1976
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Publication status: published as Landes, William M. and Posner, Richard. "Legal Precedent: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis." Journal of Law and Economics, (September 1976).
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:0146

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  1. Marie Obidzinski & Bruno Deffains, 2006. "Real Options Theory for Law Maker," Working Papers of BETA 2006-04, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, ULP, Strasbourg. [Downloadable!]
  2. Scott A. Boorman & Paul R. Levitt, 1983. "Blockmodeling Complex Statutes: Mapping Techniques Based on Combinatorial Optimization for Analyzing Economic Legislation and Its Stress Points over Time," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 665, Cowles Foundation, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
  3. Levy, Gilat, 2003. "Careerist Judges," CEPR Discussion Papers 3948, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Ignacio Palacios-Huerta & Oscar Volij, 2002. "The Measure of Intellectual Influence," Working Papers 2002-13, Brown University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  5. Paresh Kumar Narayan & Russell Smyth, 2006. "Temporal causality and the dynamics of judicial appellate caseload, real income and socio-economic complexity in Australia," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 38(19), pages 2209-2219, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Guiseppe Dari-Mattiacci & Bruno Deffains, 2006. "Uncertainty of Law and the Legal Process," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 06-071/1, Tinbergen Institute. [Downloadable!]
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