Henry Simons

William Landes

Richard Posner

Daniel Fischel Dean's Pagg_

The Program

marks the fiftieth new year host of courses, such as labor law mize those satisfactions. It tests legal of the formal anniversary and securities regulation, which grew rules and institutions against the of law and economics Thisstudy out of the efforts of the national gov­ implications of that assumption. at the of Law ernment to the market. University Chicago regulate While In the fifty years since the Univer­ School. The application of economic traditional law teachers and scholars sity of Chicago first appointed Henry to the analysis study of legal institu­ approached such courses by attempt­ Simons to its faculty, the Law School's tions was a natural outgrowth of legal ing to master the intricacies of these Program in Law and 'Economics has realism, which recognized in the 1920s new areas of regulation, Henry been graced by the likes of Nobel Lau­ that was traditional legal thought Simons and his colleagues at the Uni­ reates and George unduly formalistic and doctrinaire and versity of Chicago Law School began Stigler; Judges , thus held that the evaluation of legal asking a different set of questions: , and Antonin Scalia; doctrines and institutions should be What happens if government supports Dennis Carlton, Ronald to and from such open analysis input the price of milk? If it establishes a Coase, , and William other disciplines as psychology, sociol­ minimum wage? If it limits competi­ Landes; legal scholars Douglas Baird, ogy, political science, anthropology tion? What interested Simons and his Kenneth Dam, , and, especially, economics. colleagues at the Law School was not Daniel Fischel, and Edmund Kitch; In the of 1939, University Chicago only what the law is, but what it should and a host of other teachers and schol­ Law School became the first institu­ how it in be, operates practice and, ars whose work, building upon the tion of legal education to appoint an perhaps most important, why. central insights of economic analysis, as a full­ , Henry Simons, The economic analysis of legal insti­ has illuminated our understanding of time member of the The faculty. signif­ tutions attempts to understand and such diverse areas of the law as anti- icance of this appointment was quickly predict human choice in a world of apparent as law schools in the late scarce resources. It is premised on the 1930s and 1940s to a early began offer assumption that individuals are rational maximizers of their satisfac­ tions and that they will respond to incentives in such a way as to maxi-

VOLUME 35/SPRING 1989 3 trust, bankruptcy, torts, contracts, "The Future of Hostile Takeovers," the Program sponsors the Henry property, intellectual property, consti­ Professor Louis Kaplow of the Har­ Simons Lecture, which has been deliv­ tutional Law on law, insurance, procedure, vard School "Legal Represen­ ered by such distinguished scholars as corporate takeovers, insider trading, tation at Trial," and Professor Saul Milton Friedman, , international trade, banking, and Levmore of the University of Virginia James Tobin and , and commercial law. Law School on "Parliamentary Law, will be delivered next by Sherwin Under the direction of Professor Majority Decisionmaking and the Rosen, the Edwin A. and Betty L. Daniel R. Fischel, the Law School's Voting Paradox." Bergman Professor and Chairman of Program in Law and Economics con­ Third, the Program supports several the Department of Economics, in the Law and tinues to flourish. With generous Economics Fellowships each 1989-90 academic year. funding from such institutions as the year. These Fellowships enable schol­ For half-a-century, the University of John M. Olin Foundation, the Sarah ars from other universities to spend all Chicago Law School has been at the Scaife Foundation, the Lynde and or part of an academic year at the Law center of the study oflaw and econom­ Harry Bradley Foundation, and the School to pursue their research and to ics. It has been a productive, exciting, Ameritech Foundation, the Program interact with students and faculty influential and often highly controver­ alike. the today has six central components. Fourth, Program offers Law sial fifty years. But if imitation is First, the Program provides essential and Economics Fellowships each year the sincerest form of flattery, Henry research support for members of the to nine students, who participate in the Simons, Aaron Director, Law faculty. In the 1987-88 academic year, and Economics Workshop and and their successors have ample reason members of the law faculty who pursue independent research under to be proud, for no serious scholar, received such support published more the supervision of members of the teacher, lawyer, legislator or judge can than a dozen scholarly works in the faculty. today approach such basic subjects as field of law and economics, including Fifth, the Law and Economics Pro­ torts, contracts, antitrust or corpora­ The Economic Structure of Tort Law, by gram publishes two scholarly journals. tions without an understanding of the . William Landes and Richard Posner, The Journal ofLaw & Economics, which economic analysis of law or without Douglas Baird's "Loss Distribution, is edited by William Landes, Dennis acknowledging a very real debt to the Forum Shopping, and Bankruptcy," in Carlton, and Frank Easterbrook, extraordinary intellectual contribu­ The Law Review, focuses on the effects of laws, legal tions of the University of Chicago Geoffrey Miller's "The True Story of institutions and economic regulation Law School's Program in Law and Carolene Products," in The Supreme on economic behavior. The Journal of Economics. Court Review, and Alan Sykes's "The Legal Studies, which is edited by Boundaries of Vicarious Liability," in Richard Epstein and Geoffrey Miller, the Harvard Law Review. emphasizes the application of social Second, the Program runs the Law science theory and research techniques and Economics Workshop, a seminar to the analysis of legal doctrine in such that meets approximately twelve times diverse areas as torts, contracts, family each year and at which distinguished law, civil and criminal procedure, scholars present papers to an always criminal law, and legal history. Finally, lively audience of students and faculty Harry Kalven, Jr., Professor of Law from the Law School, the Economics Dean of the Law School Department, and the Graduate School of Business. Recent paper presenters have included Professor Roberta

Romano of the Yale Law School on

4 THE LAW SCHOOL RECORD