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Disciplinary Collisions: Blum, Kalven, and the Economic Analysis of Accident Law at Chicago in the 1960s

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  • Alain Marciano

    (MRE - Montpellier Recherche en Economie - UM - Université de Montpellier)

  • Steve G. Medema

Abstract

The University of Chicago occupies a central place in the history of law and economics. To this point, however, scant attention has been given in the literature to how the prospect of an economic analysis of law was received within the Law School at Chicago when the subject was in its infancy. In this paper we focus on the work of two prominent dissenters: Law professors Walter J. Blum and Harry Kalven, Jr. We show that, although immersed in economics and interacting with the main actors of the law and economics movement in the early 1950s, Blum and Kalven largely rejected economics as a possible and useful help for solving legal problems, both because of their concerns about the utility of economics in the legal realm and because of their sense that economics and law are grounded in fundamentally incompatible normative visions.

Suggested Citation

  • Alain Marciano & Steve G. Medema, 2018. "Disciplinary Collisions: Blum, Kalven, and the Economic Analysis of Accident Law at Chicago in the 1960s," Post-Print hal-01836082, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01836082
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.umontpellier.fr/hal-01836082
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Frischmann, Brett M. & Marciano, Alain, 2015. "Understanding The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 329-352, June.
    2. Marciano, Alain, 2012. "Guido Calabresi's economic analysis of law, Coase and the Coase theorem," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 110-118.
    3. Coase, R H, 1993. "Law and Economics at Chicago," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(1), pages 239-254, April.
    4. Alain Marciano & Sophie Harnay, 2008. "Posner, Economics and the Law: from Law and Economics to an Economic Analysis of Law," ICER Working Papers 09-2008, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.
    5. Alain Marciano & Rustam Romaniuc, 2015. "Accident costs, resource allocation and individual rationality: Blum, Kalven and Calabresi," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(6), pages 1084-1114, December.
    6. Harnay, Sophie & Marciano, Alain, 2009. "Posner, Economics And The Law: From €Œlaw And Economics†To An Economic Analysis Of Law," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(2), pages 215-232, June.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic analysis of law; Chicago; Blum; Kalven; Liability; Tort Law; Automobile; accidents; History of Political Economy; History of Economic Thought through 1925; History of Economic Ideas;
    All these keywords.

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