Law and Markets II builds on the theoretical foundation of Law and Markets I to examine the roles of specific legal regimes and legal institutions in the operations of a market economy. By means of engagement with cutting edge academic research and the analysis of case studies, the course explores the interrelationships between areas of law including contract law, constitutional law, and criminal law and the market, and it further examines the roles that particular legal institutions, such as property and money, play in a market economy. This inter-disciplinary and intra-legal course will help students better understand current economic policy debates and explore how they, as lawyers, might contribute to those debates.

10 x 2 Hour Seminars.

N/A

Law and Markets I

Mid-semester assessment = 1500 word reaction blog-post (25% of the grade) to be submitted 1-2 weeks after one of the first five seminars. These blog posts are to be styled according to leading academic blogs in the fields of legal studies, such as the Oxford Business Law Blog (https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/business-law-blog/submission-guidelines); LPE Blog (https://lpeproject.org/blog/) ; and Verfassungsblog (https://verfassungsblog.de/blog/ ) .

Summative assessment = 4000 word summative essay (75% of the grade) that compares and contrasts at least two different areas of law, or two different legal institutions, and critically examines their interaction and relevance in constituting and regulating markets by means of case study analysis.

The course aims to give students the opportunity to explore in detail the role of law in the operations of a market economy through exposure to cutting edge academic research and engagement with case studies. Students will build on the macro-theoretical analysis of the market in Law and Markets I to critically evaluate how competing theoretical accounts of the market (Neoclassical, Institutional Economics, Critical Legal Studies, Law and Political Economy) understand particular areas of law, such as constitutional law, contract law, and criminal law, as well as analysing what these different intellectual traditions consider to be the nature and role of key legal institutions, such as money and property, in the operations of the market. The course prompts students to think critically about the role that law can play in the definition of markets and, thus, about how they, as lawyers, might contribute to current policy and regulatory debates.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

1. Critically analyse the role that a diverse range of legal regimes (contract law, constitutional law, criminal law) play in constituting and regulating markets.

2. Understand and critically evaluate contemporary debates about the nature and function of core institutions of the market, such as 'property', 'firm', 'prices' and 'money' 

3. Compare how neoclassical economists and institutional economists perceive the role of a) different legal regimes and b) particular market institutions in the operations of capitalist political economies as compared with the perspectives of political economists and critical legal scholars.

4. Apply the theoretical frameworks discussed in the course to the analysis of different markets by means of case studies.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.