|
Syllabus |
|
|||||||||
Main Page
Main
Law Page
Office
|
A modern
economy is an exchange economy, with individuals exchanging goods and services
for mutual benefit. The legal system plays an indispensable role of providing
the "rules of the road" defining how those exchanges can take
place. We will discuss a number of
questions, including the purposes of the legal system, and what economic
theory has to say about how laws should be written and what their impact will
be. As you will see during this
course, economic reasoning has a profoundly important place in our legal
system. Similarly, economic reasoning
has a lot to say about how laws should read.
Much of the
material addresses with lawyers, and they are often quantitatively
challenged. While you will see little
formal mathematics or graphical analysis in this course, do not confuse the
lack of equations and graphs with rigor.
I shall introduce some game theory, which has recently become an
integral part in the economic analysis of law. Text.
The Text for this course will be Economic
Foundations of Law by Stephen J. Spurr.
We will also make extensive use of the material on the web site for
Cooter and Ulen, another text. There
is a link to their web site on the main page for this course. Problem Sets. The best way to learn material is
by working problems. Most weeks,
there will be a problem set due at the beginning
of class on Monday. If you expect to be late, I suggest you e-mail the
homework to me as an attachment. You
can also fax it to me. Exams. There will be a midterm and a final exam. The midterm is
tentatively scheduled for October 24 and the final for the week of December
12 at the time appointed (or anointed, if you wish) by the Registrar (I.e., I
have not yet read the course schedule to see when the exams have been set,
but I will). If it becomes necessary
to change the dates, I will let you know as soon as possible. Grades are calculated as follows:
In computing the homework grade, I drop your two lowest scores. Note that the last homework set is a bonus set. The participation
grade: effective teaching of this course depends on your coming to class
prepared and participating in discussion.
I reserve the right to call on you. Plus and
minus grades are new innovations. I
will assign pluses and minuses as I think appropriate (obviously if you are
at the low/high end of the distribution, you are likely to get a minus or
plus). The Fine
Print (which you ignore at your peril) E-mails. Like everyone else, I am inundated with Spam mail and viruses, so two policies. I will answer and respond to your e-mails with two exceptions. Please put a meaningful subject line in every e-mail. It doesn’t have to be long. But I delete a lot of e-mails without reading if I suspect spam and if there is no subject, I suspect spam. Second, all incoming e-mails are checked by both by a KSU virus checker and my virus checker. The KSU virus checker automatically deletes infected e-mails. So do I. The examinations. I expect you to make all examinations unless excused in advance, or excused after the fact by an appropriate medical certificate or other unusual cases. Click here for the date of any makeup exam. In the case of an excused absence from the final exam, the makeup will be given at the comparable time in the subsequent semester (2:00PM of Friday of the 15th week.). Incompletes. Please note university policy that incompletes can only be given under extraordinary circumstances. You must be passing the course at the time of the request and it must be due to some significant unforeseen event arising in the last three weeks of the semester. Withdrawal. You can withdraw during the first ten weeks of the semester. Click here for the last day of withdrawal. Withdrawal before the deadline results in a "W" on the official transcript; after the deadline a grade must be calculated and reported. Class Attendance is expected. If you miss class, you are responsible for
catching up on the material. I do
cover material other than in text and you are responsible for that. Prerequisites. Students attending the course
who do not have the proper prerequisite risk being deregistered from the
class. Enrollment. Students have responsibility to ensure they are
properly enrolled in classes. You are
advised to review your official class schedule during the first two weeks of
the semester to ensure you are properly enrolled in this class and section. Click here for the last day to correct an error with
your advising office. If registration errors are not corrected by
this date and you continue to attend and participate in classes for which you
are not officially enrolled, you are advised now that you will not receive a
grade at the conclusion of the semester for any class in which you are not
properly registered. Academic Honesty: Cheating means to misrepresent the source,
nature, or other conditions of your academic work (e.g., tests, papers,
projects, assignments) so as to get undeserved credit. The use of the intellectual property of
others without giving them appropriate credit is a serious academic
offense. It is the University's policy
that cheating or plagiarism result in receiving a failing grade for the work
or course. Repeat offenses result in
dismissal from the University. I take cheating seriously. Disability.
In accordance with University policy, if you have a documented
disability and require accommodations to obtain equal access in this course,
please contact me at the beginning of the semester or when given an assignment
for which an accommodation is required. Students with disabilities must
verify their eligibility through the Office of Student Disability Services
(SDS) in the Michael Schwartz Student Services Center (672-2972). |
|||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
Created
by Charles W. Upton, who may be contacted at cupton@kent.edu
|