According to a recent defense of law and economics, contemporary practitioners have abandoned the idea that law should maximize economic efficiency and wealth. To test this claim, three economists reviewed twelve major law and economics textbooks.

Law and economics offers a portable, teachable procedure that students can learn in a semester and apply across fields. Should LPE aim to develop a rival procedure of its own, or should it aspire to a different kind of methodological maturity?

Is LPE scholarship anti-empirical? Has contemporary law and economics become a neutral social science? Don’t believe everything you hear in Chicago.