Unlike a traditional course on legal theory that focuses on the abstract question “what is law,” this course looks at a specific theoretical development that has been very influential in the 20th century; the development of legal realism and the law and economics movement. These instrumental approaches to law have developed mainly in the U.S., but have had impact all over the world. The course will look at the roots of this approach in the writings of Oliver Holmes, go through the main "realist" period in the 1920s and 1930s and will then move to the post-war development of law & economics, looking at the Coase theorem and other seminal writings on law & economics in the later 20th century.

The course aims to provide students with an overview of modern developments in legal theory, focusing in particular on legal realism and economic analysis of law.

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