The Legal Analyst – A Toolkit for Thinking about the Law

un petit point sur les outils de l'analyse économique du droit et du behavioral law and economics. Rien de véritablement neuf dans cet ouvrage. La plupart des éléments a déjà été présenté par Sunstein notamment mais aussi par Shavell ou Posner. L'ensemble permet tout de même une synthèse intéressante.

How do laws and the legal process balance the competing interests of everyone involved? What do judges consider when deciding how a law should be construed? Ward Farnsworth here presents tools to help answer these questions, and others like them: thirty-one concepts that underlie our legal system. Paraphrasing part of the book's preface, the goal is to gather and clearly explain, with numerous examples, the most interesting ideas presented in law school. That said, I think this book is under-sold as specifically being for legal-minded people. Some of the concepts are more specific to the law, to be sure. But most of the ideas have general applicability to thinking about how people interact generally. The economic ideas give ways to think about how much things are worth (in a broad sense of the word), how people value them, and whose responsibility problems should be. These ideas are all useful in considering group dynamics well outside the legal context. The game theory concepts are useful to anyone in any sort of business, in thinking about, and talking about, how their competitors will act and react to them. The psychological phenomena studied are immensely valuable to advertisers, and to anyone in the general public interested in recognizing the subtle tactics advertisements use. The concepts deriving from statistics are valuable to anyone thinking about what the figures people give actually mean, or don't mean. Even the jurisprudential ideas studied are often useful for argument and persuasion in general, and making one's point more effectively. This book isn't really about law, although it frequently touches upon it, and the topic of law is an undercurrent throughout. It's really about concepts that show up everywhere, not just in law: concepts useful to anyone wanting to think about how the world works, why it works the way it does, and how to successfully navigate it. It's not a long book, but it is a deep book: best digested a chapter at a time, giving time for thought about the concepts discussed to see them elsewhere in the world. (In this regard I regard it much as I regard The Federalist Papers : a book worthy of slow digestion and extra time to chew on the topics presented.) I've never been to law school and have no intention of going. I don't know how useful it is specifically for the aspiring lawyer. But I do think it's well worth reading for anyone interested in thinking deeply about the world and how we move through it. Highly recommended.

This is just what I needed to stimulate me and get me thinking about the law before I start studying law this autumn. Law Professor Ward Farnsworth realised that there isn’t as much emphasis in law schools on teaching processes for thinking about and analysing legal matters as there should be. He attempts to address that balance with this fantastic book.

This book is very interesting

Gives a great description into the concepts of how and why different arguments in law are made and makes you think about scenarios in many different ways. Gives relavent and exemplary examples to support theories and topics discussed. This book is great for all kinds of people (lawyers, law students, managers, and general public) Vocabulary is not complicated and can be understood by most people. Very interesting read but also manages to not be boring.