Taking as its starting-point Guido Calabresi's latest book-The Future of Law and Economics-the present article aims to explore the often neglected issue of value judgments and normativity in Law and Economics. I will show the importance of enquiring Calabresi's methodological distinction between Law and Economics and Economic Analysis of Law and the related bilateralism thesis in order to understand the problematic relationship between methodological value judgments and ethical value judgments, the 'distance' between Calabresi and Posner and the problematic notion of reformism. Then I will try to introduce a different notion of normativity. I will also show the existence of an unresolved tension in Calabresi's methodological discourse between a positive approach, which seems to be privileged in this book, and his insistence on the inevitability of value judgments in economic analysis. Finally, I clarify the reasons for the 'ignorance' of values by the economist by distinguishing between economists' "lack of self-awareness", economists' idolatry and the economists' lenses.

On the (Methodological) Future of Law and Economics. The Uneasy Burden of Value Judgments and Normativity

Silvestri P.
2019-01-01

Abstract

Taking as its starting-point Guido Calabresi's latest book-The Future of Law and Economics-the present article aims to explore the often neglected issue of value judgments and normativity in Law and Economics. I will show the importance of enquiring Calabresi's methodological distinction between Law and Economics and Economic Analysis of Law and the related bilateralism thesis in order to understand the problematic relationship between methodological value judgments and ethical value judgments, the 'distance' between Calabresi and Posner and the problematic notion of reformism. Then I will try to introduce a different notion of normativity. I will also show the existence of an unresolved tension in Calabresi's methodological discourse between a positive approach, which seems to be privileged in this book, and his insistence on the inevitability of value judgments in economic analysis. Finally, I clarify the reasons for the 'ignorance' of values by the economist by distinguishing between economists' "lack of self-awareness", economists' idolatry and the economists' lenses.
2019
19
3
1
17
Economics Analysis of Law; ethical value judgments; Guido Calabresi; Law and Economics; methodological value judgments; normativity
Silvestri P.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2318/1760891
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