Simple Rules for a Complex World by Richard A Epstein

Simple Rules for a Complex World by Richard A Epstein

It is often considered that too many laws is one of the necessary consequences of a complex society. Many insist that any call for legal simplification smacks of nostalgia and sentimentality. Richard Epstein believes, however, that the conventional view has it backward. The richer texture of American modern society allows for more individual freedom and choice, permitting the organization of a comprehensive legal order capable of meeting the technological and social challenges of today on the basis of just six core principles. The first four rules, which regulate human interactions in ordinary social life, concern the autonomy of the individual, property, contract and tort. Taken together these rules establish and protect consistent entitlements over all resources, both human and natural. These rules are backstopped by two more rules that permit forced exchanges on payment of just compensation when private or public necessity so dictates. Epstein then uses these six building blocks to clarify several intractable problems in the modern legal landscape. His discussion of employment contracts explains the hidden virtues of contracts at will and exposes the weaknesses of laws regarding collective bargaining, unjust dismissal, employer discrimination and comparable worth. Epstein's analysis shows how laws governing liability for products and professional services, corporate transactions and environmental protection have generated unnecessary social strife and economic dislocation by violating these basic principles. This text offers an agenda for social reform that undoes many of the problems of the modern regulatory state. At a time when most Americans have come to distrust and fear government at all levels, Epstein shows how a consistent application of economic and political theory allows us to steer a middle path between too much and too little.

Richard A. Epstein is the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. He was formerly the editor of the Journal of Legal Studies and now serves as an editor of the Journal of Law and Economics. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1985 and has taught a wide range of courses that include Roman Law, Legal History, Political Thought and Law and Economics, as well as a full range of traditional legal courses in contracts, property, tort, and constitutional law. He is the author of, among other books, Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain(1985), Simple Rules for a Complex World (1997), and Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty and the Common Good. He is also the author of numerous scholarly and journalistic articles, and the editor of Cases and Materials on Torts (7th ed. 2000).

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780674808201
ISBN 10	0674808207
Title	Simple Rules for a Complex World
Author	Richard A Epstein
Condition	Unavailable
Publisher	Harvard University Press
Year published	1998-03-17
Number of pages	378
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable