Posner, Bentham and the rule of economy

Bibliographic Data

ID2159384
AuthorsStephen G Engelmann
Year2005
Volume34
Issue1
Pages32-50
Publication date2005-02-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEconomy and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-5147 • E-ISSN: 1469-5766
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0308514042000329324
OpenAlexW2007243152
LanguageEN
References cited17

Law and economics is a prominent but understudied discourse of liberal government. This essay examines the work of Richard Posner, with special attention to his rediscovery of Jeremy Bentham as a founder of law and economics. Posner's new reading of Bentham accurately identifies Bentham as a fellow anti-juridical theorist of government and a fellow believer in the rule of economy. But Bentham's economy makes room for a range of disciplinary appropriations, and Posner's does not. Posner's economy is entirely defined and exhausted by a particular economic doctrine. The essay suggests that civil society has been over-emphasized in the literature contrasting classical and contemporary liberalism. Instead, it turns attention to a common understanding of law as a non-autonomous and flexible tactic of economic government and to the role of the various sciences that can inform it

Classical liberalism · Discipline · Doctrine · Economics · Government (linguistics · Jeremy bentham · Law and economics · Liberalism · Neoclassical economics · Political science · Reading (process · Sociology · Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems · Legal and Constitutional Studies · Legal principles and applications · Law · Philosophy

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