Markets, Morals, and the Law

This book shows how traditional problems of philosophy can be understood more clearly when considered in terms of law, economics, and political science. The discussion is divided into four sections. The first offers a new version of legal positivism and an original theory of legal rights. The second critically evaluates the economic approach to law, while the third considers the relationship of justice to liability for unintentional harms and to the practice of settling disputes rather than fully litigating them. Finally, the book explores formal social choice in democratic theory, the...

This book shows how traditional problems of philosophy can be understood more clearly when considered in terms of law, economics, and political science. The discussion is divided into four sections. The first offers a new version of legal positivism and an original theory of legal rights. The second critically evaluates the economic approach to law, while the third considers the relationship of justice to liability for unintentional harms and to the practice of settling disputes rather than fully litigating them. Finally, the book explores formal social choice in democratic theory, the relationship between market behaviour and voting, and the view that morality itself, like law, is a solution of the problem of market failure.