Public Law and Economics

About the Author
Robert Cooter is the Herman F. Selvin Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a pioneer in the field of law and economics and has received various awards and fellowships, including the Ronald H. Coase Medal and the Humboldt Research Prize. He was a founding director of the American Law and Economics Association and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Michael Gilbert is the Vice Dean and Martha Lubin Karsh and Bruce A. Karsh Bicentennial Professor of Law at the University of Virginia, where he teaches classes on election law, legislation, and law and economics. His research applies economic theory to topics in public law, including elections, entrenchment, corruption, and constitutional rights. He is the inaugural director of UVA's Center for Public Law and Political Economy.
This comprehensive textbook applies economic analysis to public law. The economic analysis of law has revolutionized legal scholarship and teaching in the last half-century, but it has focused mostly on private law, business law, and criminal law. This book extends the analysis to fundamental topics in public law, such as the separation of government powers, regulation by agencies, constitutional rights, and elections. Every public law involves six fundamental processes of government: bargaining, voting, entrenching, delegating, adjudicating, and enforcing. The book devotes two chapters to each process, beginning with the economic theory and then applying the theory to a wide range of puzzles and problems in law. Each chapter concentrates on cases and legal doctrine, showing the relevance of economics to the work of lawyers and judges. Featuring lucid, accessible writing and engaging examples, the book addresses enduring topics in public law as well as modern controversies,
including gerrymandering, voter identification laws, and qualified immunity for police.