Legal Precedent: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis / William M. Landes, Richard A. Posner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Landes, William M.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Posner, Richard A.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w0146.

NBER working paper series no. w0146

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Stare decisis--United States.

Stare decisis.

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Legal Precedent

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1976.

Cambridge, Mass. : National Bureau of Economic Research, 1976.

Summary:

The use of precedents to create rules of legal obligation has, to our knowledge, received little theoretical or empirical analysis. This paper presents and tests empirically an economic approach to legal precedent that is derived mainly from the analysis of capital formation and investment. We treat the body of legal precedents created by judicial decisions in prior periods as a capital stock that yields a flow of information services which depreciates over time as new conditions arise that were not foreseen by the framers of the existing precedents. New (and replacement) capital is created by investment in the production of precedents.

Notes:

Print version record

August 1976.