Last modified: 27 Aug 2025 10:46
This course invites students to engage with the law from an economic perspective. Why and when should property be privately, communally, or publicly owned? How can a legal system minimise the social costs of accidents? Why and to what extent do we need to regulate contracts? These are some of the questions that the course will address. Each seminar will focus on a legal topic that will be analysed through an economic lens. No prior knowledge of economics is needed.
| Study Type | Undergraduate | Level | 4 |
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| Term | First Term | Credit Points | 25 credits (12.5 ECTS credits) |
| Campus | Aberdeen | Sustained Study | No |
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One or more of these courses have a limited number of places. Priority access will be given to students for whom this course is compulsory. Please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions for more details on this process.
This optional course provides a non-technical introduction to the economic analysis of law. It allows Honours students to look at various fields of law studied in previous years from a new, interdisciplinary perspective.
Economic analysis is not confined to those areas of the law which are traditionally called “economic”, in the sense of commercial or business-related. Rather, it offers an analytical method for critically assessing the impact of legal rules on the behaviour of individuals and firms in virtually all areas of the law; it sees law as a mechanism to guide behaviour and focuses our attention on the incentives legal rules provide, especially in terms of the effect of these rules on social welfare.
The course has two main objectives. First, to show how and to what extent the concepts and methods of economic theory can be used to understand the effects of law on the behaviour of individuals and firms. Second, to engage students in the active use of these analytical tools in critical discussion about particular rules, doctrines and cases, especially in the law of contracts, torts, property and crime. For instance, we shall discuss commons and anticommons in IP law; information asymmetry and risk allocation in contract law; principal-agent problems in corporate governance; or the incentive effects of tort law and criminal law.
Economic methods and concepts will be introduced via examples, taken from various jurisdictions, demonstrating how its analytical tools can illuminate specific legal problems that arise not just in Scots or UK law but across modern legal systems. In this way, we will also see how economics contributes to comparative law.
Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 50 | |
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| Assessment Weeks | 15 | Feedback Weeks | 18 | |
| Feedback |
A Multiple-Choice Questions class test worth 50% of the overall grade. |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
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| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 50 | |
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| Assessment Weeks | 21 | Feedback Weeks | 24 | |
| Feedback |
A 2,500-word essay worth 50% of the overall grade. |
Word Count | 2500 | |
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
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| Assessment Type | Formative | Weighting | ||
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| Assessment Weeks | 17 | Feedback Weeks | 18 | |
| Feedback |
An essay plan worth 300 words (formative assessment). |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
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| Assessment Type | Formative | Weighting | ||
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| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
Oral presentations in seminars 2-6 (weeks 12-18), with oral feedback at the end of the class. |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
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| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 100 | |
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| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
Re-submission of failed element in re-sit diet; the failed course will be capped at 09 (D3). |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Procedural | Analyse | Assess the efficiency effects of legal rules and policies. |
| Conceptual | Understand | Recognise the economic issues in a legal problem and apply the economic way of thinking to analyse it. |
| Reflection | Create | To communicate orally and in writing information, advice, and choices in an effective and persuasive manner. |
| Reflection | Evaluate | To evaluate the legal implications of economic theories, their impact on society and the alternative paths for regulation. |
| Reflection | Apply | To analyse specific cases and apply inductively economic theories to broader legal concepts. |
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