Gindis on Manne at Miami

David Gindis, University of Hertfordshire Business School, has posted Law and Economics Under the Palms: Henry Manne at the University of Miami, 1974–1980:

Henry G. Manne described himself as the only full-time missionary for law and economics from the first glimmerings of that subject. This paper deals with the period of Manne’s career when he first assumed this role, which coincides with his time at the University of Miami Law School (1974-1980). Prior to Miami, Manne had formulated a vision for law and economics, and had developed prototypical structures for funding and running interdisciplinary conferences and intensive economics courses for law professors. Manne professionalized these at Miami, using the organizational vehicle of the Law and Economics Center (LEC) that he set up and ran until his departure. Over the course of this period, Manne recruited and invested heavily in teaching, research and conference administration capacities. The LEC branched out, particularly into the policy arena, multiplying the frequency and diversity of activities pursued. It introduced innovative ways of linking economics and legal practice, economists and legal professionals, and played a pivotal role in the integration of law and economics as intellectually integrated disciplines.

--Dan Ernst

Thompson Reviews MacLean's "Democracy in Chains"

Fred Thompson, Willamette University, has posted  Public Choice and the Origins of the Radical Right: A Review of Nancy MacLean's Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America.

Democracy in Chains is a heck of a read, but it is, at its core, fundamentally flawed. Its core is a confrontation with James Buchanan and the origins of public choice theory, which argues that public choice is a backlash to both the New Deal and the civil rights movement. The flaw reflects MacLean’s misapprehension of the content of public choice theory and its implications, a misunderstanding of what Buchanan actually believed (or, at least, claimed to believe), and, therefore, an unwarranted leap from Buchanan’s role in creating public choice theory to all things nasty about right-wing politics.

Sugarman on Brooks: Free Access

The paper by David Sugarman, “Promoting Dialogue Between History and Socio-legal Studies: The Contribution of Christopher W. Brooks and the ‘Legal Turn’ in Early Modern English History,” which we've previously noticed, has now been published in the Journal of Law and Society, October 2017, Volume 44, Issue Supplement S1, pages S37–S60, and is available “on a free-access basis” for the next four weeks here.