| Semester 3, 2022 Online | |
| Units : | 1 |
| Faculty or Section : | Faculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts |
| School or Department : | School of Business |
| Grading basis : | Graded |
| Course fee schedule : | /current-students/administration/fees/fee-schedules |
Staffing
Examiner:
Overview
Law and Economics explores the application of economic principles and methods to the law and legal issues. The course develops knowledge about the interaction of the legal system and resource allocation through the study of law and economics. To this end, the economic analysis of law is founded on models of human behaviour and examines how decision making is affected by different legal regimes. In this course both positive and normative analysis will be used. Positive analysis is used to predict the consequences of legal rules and normative analysis is used, in particular, to evaluate the efficiency effects of legal rules.
Central to the understanding of law and economics is a set of fundamental economic concepts and tools of economic analysis. Concepts such as rationality and economic tools such as price theory, efficiency and market failure are introduced. These tools and concepts are then applied to legal issues such as property rights, contract law, criminal law, torts, and competitive markets. Law and economics offers a framework with which to model legal outcomes by bringing together legal theory and economic reasoning.
In this course, the economic way of thinking is applied to real world problems and policy issues and demonstrates the relevance of viewing legal rules from an economic perspective. Legal issues examined in the course include property law, tort law, contract law, criminal law and market regulation. The economic analysis of the law provides a unified vision of the law, tying together diverse areas of law into a common theoretical structure.
Course learning outcomes
On successful completion of this course students will have:
- the necessary knowledge to recognise the economic issues in a legal problem;
- an understanding of how to apply the economic way of thinking to analyse a legal problem;
- an understanding of how to assess the efficiency effects of legal rules and policies.
Topics
| Description | Weighting(%) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Introduction to law and economics | 5.00 |
| 2. | Economic tools and techniques | 20.00 |
| 3. | Property rights | 15.00 |
| 4. | Contract law | 15.00 |
| 5. | Torts | 15.00 |
| 6. | Competitive markets | 15.00 |
| 7. | Criminal law, law enforcement and punishment | 15.00 |
Text and materials required to be purchased or accessed
Student workload expectations
To do well in this subject, students are expected to commit approximately 10 hours per week including class contact hours, independent study, and all assessment tasks. If you are undertaking additional activities, which may include placements and residential schools, the weekly workload hours may vary.
Assessment details
| Description | Group Assessment |
Weighting (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Problem Solving 1 | No | 30 |
| Problem Solving 2 | No | 30 |
| Problem Solving 3 | No | 40 |