TOWARDS THE CONSTRIBUTION OF ECONOMICS TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF ITS SCIENTIFIC NEIGHBORS. THE CASE OF A LEGAL SCHOLARSHIP*

Abstract

In Tříska (2017), ways were suggested in which legal scholarship (LS) may contribute to the development of economics—economic theory (ET). The objective of the present article is to corroborate a reverse know-how transfer, i.e., from ET to LS. Its method is therefore primarily derived from how microeconomics approaches the concept of homo economicus. The article’s objective is to show under what conditions this economic method can be expanded and generalized so as to enable its application to neighboring disciplines of social studies. The outcome of this endeavor—for want of a better term—is presented under the label of a General Theory of Choice and Behavior (GTCB). Moreover, it is argued that, under the umbrella of GTCB, these disciplines can establish a genuine scientific underpinning and thus also adopt a formalized analytical toolkit. For concreteness, this conclusion is illustrated for legal scholarship, namely its concept of a contract, which is to be strictly interpreted in the economic sense as a collective choice. At the highest level of generalization, the article should be understood as a response to Elinor Ostrom’s seminal call for an agreement among social scientists on universally acceptable analytical building blocks.

Data:
Received: 18 Sep 2021
Revised: 12 Nov 2021
Accepted: 6 Dec 2021
Published: 20 Dec 2021