The University of Virginia has a renowned history in political economy. Beginning in the 1950s, James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock applied economics to political processes and wrote “The Calculus of Consent,” a classic study of constitutional democracy. In 1960, Ronald Coase wrote “The Problem of Social Cost,” a foundational paper on economics and law. Together these UVA professors won two Nobel Prizes, founded academic fields, and influenced thousands of scholars and students.
The Center for Public Law and Political Economy continues this tradition. UVA Law School features a large and distinguished group of scholars who apply insights from economics and political science to the study of public law, including constitutional law, election law, regulation and tax. The center unites and supports their scholarship. The center also provides students, researchers and practitioners with opportunities to connect with these ideas through workshops, conferences and other events.
Extraordinary times beget extraordinary measures. Multiple national emergencies during the past quarter century have generated a pitched debate as to...
The Supreme Court has twice held since 2020 that statutory restrictions on the President’s removal power violate Article II of the U.S. Constitution...
This chapter studies political corruption and its many relationships to the law of democracy. It begins with bribery laws, which forbid officials from...
Extraordinary times beget extraordinary measures. Multiple national emergencies during the past quarter century have generated a pitched debate as to...
The Supreme Court has twice held since 2020 that statutory restrictions on the President’s removal power violate Article II of the U.S. Constitution...
This chapter studies political corruption and its many relationships to the law of democracy. It begins with bribery laws, which forbid officials from...
Lenders are perfectly free to decide for themselves whether, when, how, to whom and on what terms they will extend credit to a sovereign borrower. But...
False information causes harm, threatening individuals, groups, and society. Many people struggle to judge the veracity of the information around them...
Many analyses of law take an unsentimental, perhaps even cynical view of regulated actors. On this view, law is a necessity borne of people’s selfish...
There is a live debate going on over whether antitrust should take a broader view of the economics of market concentration. When antitrust reformers...
The SEC mandates that public companies assess new information that changes the risks that they face and disclose these if there has been a “material”...
This paper describes the response of George Washington's administration to a plea for emergency war financing from French colonists who were trying to...
The conventional view is that standardized boilerplate terms represent an optimal contractual solution to the contracting problems facing parties in...
Consequential damages have been a cornerstone of contract doctrine since the broken crankshaft in Hadley v. Baxendale. And the Hadley rule is one of...
In this article, we examine the relations between risk, the choice of foreign or local contract terms (parameters), and maturity in the sovereign debt...
This chapter examines several ways that the United States takes advantage of international law’s permissiveness and ambiguity to extend its criminal...
Courts routinely use low cash bail as a financial incentive to ensure that released defendants appear in court and abstain from crime. This can create...
The past few years have witnessed a particular accusation leveled repeatedly and loudly at the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority: that...
This Article considers one aspect of the ongoing debate about the moral limits of markets—namely, the purported harmful effects of market transactions...
We examine the legal terms in the market for green bonds, debt instruments in which proceeds are earmarked, directly or indirectly, for projects with...
Many core courses at the Law School integrate concepts from political economy into the study of public law. Examples include Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, International Law, Legislation, and State and Local Government Law. In addition, the Law School offers many specialized courses that explore connections between law and political economy in greater depth. The following is a list of courses offered during the current and two previous academic years. Numbers in parentheses indicate which academic year(s) the courses were offered, i.e., 2021-22 is coded (22), 2022-23 is coded (23) and 2023-24 is coded (24). (SC) stands for short course and (YR) stands for yearlong.
Capitalism and Socialism (22) Comparative Constitutional Law (22,23,24) Feminism and the Free Market (22,24) Legislation and Regulation (22,23) Monetary Constitution Seminar (22,23,24) Regulatory Law and Policy (22,23) Constitutional Law and Economics (23,24) Advanced Campaign Finance (22) Rules (22,24) Regulation of the Political Process (22,23)
University of Virginia School of Law Vice Dean Michael D. Gilbert’s new co-authored textbook applies economic analysis to the field of public law. The publisher, Oxford University Press, has made the book available for free online.
University of Virginia law professor Mitu Gulati looks at the tragic history of Haiti’s 19th-century “odious debt” to France after islanders won their freedom from slavery, and discusses whether Haiti could recoup what it lost.
The Law School offers many opportunities for students to explore public law and political economy. The Law and Economics Workshop hosts researchers from around the world, many of whom concentrate on public law topics. The Law and Economics Research Paper Series features work by UVA Law faculty, including many papers that draw on social science to study public law. Faculty affiliated with the center regularly supervise independent studies that result in published student notes.
Professor Joshua Fischman of the University of Virginia School of Law offers insights on the possible implications of the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Ticketmaster.
UVA Law professor John Monahan discusses how predicting violence became a concern for courtrooms and mental health practices nationwide, and developed alongside his own career.
A new paper by Professor Cathy Hwang of the University of Virginia School of Law argues that a sense of corporate purpose can fuel the success of nonprofit enterprises such as OpenAI, IKEA and Rolex, which generate revenue primarily from operations rather than donations. “ Purpose and Nonprofit
First-year students Jacob Bertram and Joshua Jolly won the ECVC Transactional Law Competition, among other accolades for the University of Virginia School of Law community.
University of Virginia School of Law Vice Dean Michael D. Gilbert, an expert on election law and law and economics, has been elected a member of the American Law Institute.
Professor Emeritus Charles J. Goetz, an economist at the University of Virginia School of Law who reshaped the field of contracts, died Oct. 16. He was 85.
University of Virginia School of Law professor Edwin Hu’s co-authored paper analyzing how shareholders use customized proxy advice won the Northern Finance Association’s Best Paper Award in Corporate Finance.
Members of the University of Virginia School of Law community have recently been singled out for excellence. Among the accolades, UVA was ranked No. 1 in Above the Law’s annual law school rankings.
New courses offered this fall at the University of Virginia School of Law include Artificial Intelligence and Democracy, International Settlement of Disputes, and Single People and the Law.
Professor Joshua Fischman of the University of Virginia School of Law offers insights on the possible implications of the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Ticketmaster.
Members of the University of Virginia School of Law community have recently been singled out for excellence. Among the accolades, Professor Michael Livermore will be in Paris this school year through a fellowship dedicated to addressing looming global challenges.
University of Virginia School of Law professor Megan Stevenson, an economist and criminal justice scholar, has won the inaugural Donald M. Ephraim Prize in Law and Economics.
Social scientist Susan S. Silbey discusses her life’s work on why people and organizations do and don’t obey the law for the latest episode of “Common Law,” a podcast of the University of Virginia School of Law.
A federal agency responsible for reviewing requests to build interstate natural gas pipelines almost always approves them. Professor Alison Gocke explores the reasons why on the latest episode of “Common Law,” a podcast of the University of Virginia School of Law.
Experts at a symposium at the University of Virginia School of Law will explore how abortion rights advocates may reclaim reproductive rights through the democratic process after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.
Professors Douglas Laycock and Bertrall Ross of the University of Virginia School of Law are being recognized by the Association of American Law Schools for their scholarship.
Stories from the past year highlight 10 changemaking moments at the University of Virginia School of Law launched by community members to serve the greater good.
Professor Michael Livermore, an expert in computational legal analysis at the University of Virginia School of Law, discusses the future of artificial intelligence in the legal industry.
Members of the University of Virginia School of Law community have recently been singled out for excellence. Among the accolades, Spencer Haydary ’23 was named a 2022 John A. Herring Scholar by the Serpentine Society and seven faculty members cracked the top 75 among the most-cited law professors in the U.S.
The 16th Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies will be held at the University of Virginia School of Law from Nov. 3-5. Anne-Marie Slaughter, the CEO of New America and a former dean at Princeton, will deliver the keynote address.
University of Virginia School of Law professor Bertrall Ross’ paper “Voter Data, Democratic Inequality, and the Risk of Political Violence” has sparked a pro-democracy project to widen voter outreach efforts.
University of Virginia School of Law professor Megan Stevenson, an economist and criminal justice scholar, has won the inaugural Donald M. Ephraim Prize in Law and Economics.
University of California, Berkeley professor Jennifer Skeem discusses empirical guidance for shifting programs and practices to improve outcomes for high-need, high-risk populations involved in the justice system. Skeem’s talk was the 18th P. Browning Hoffman Memorial Lecture in Law and Psychiatry, sponsored by the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, and the University’s schools of Law and Medicine. UVA Law professors Richard Bonnie ’69 and John Monahan introduce the event.
