Economic Transplants On Lawmaking for Corporations and Capital Markets

Why and in what ways have lawyers been importing economic theories into a legal environment, and how has this shaped scholarly research, judicial and legislative work? Since the financial crisis, corporate or capital markets law has been the focus of attention by academia and media. Formal modelling has been used to describe how capital markets work and, later, has been criticised for its abstract assumptions. Empirical legal studies and regulatory impact assessments offered different ways forward. This book presents a new approach to the risks and benefits of interdisciplinary policy work. The benefits economic theory brings for reliable and tested lawmaking are contrasted with important challenges including the significant differences of research methodology, leading to misunderstandings and problems of efficient implementation of economic theory's findings into the legal world. Katja Langenbucher's innovative research scrutinises the potential of economic theory to European legislators faced with a lack of democratic accountability.

Introduction; Part I. The Promises of Economic Transplants: 1. Economic methodology, its scientific turn and the question 'which economics'; 2. Economic imperialism; 3. Law and its methodology; 4. The promises of economic transplants; Part II. Economic Transplants and Legislation: 5. The promises and the legislator; 6. Formal modelling and the problem of predictions; 7. Empirical work and the problem of descriptions; 8. Promises revisited and embracing complexity; Part III. Economic Transplants and Adjudication: 9. Promises and the judiciary; 10. Promises revisited. Conclusion and a different promise.

Since the financial crisis, corporate or capital markets law has been the focus of attention by academia and media. This book presents a new approach to the risks and benefits of interdisciplinary and policy work for legislators and judges, and will appeal to lawyers and economists working in these areas.

Katja Langenbucher holds a full professorship for Private Law, Corporate and Financial Law in Goethe-University's House of Finance and is an affiliated professor at Sciences Po, Paris. She was awarded the Alfred Grosser Chaire, Sciences Po, Paris in 2008–9. She was a Research Fellow at London School of Economics and Political Science in 2012–13. Langenbucher was a guest professor at Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien and Universität Wien, Vienna in 2015 and an International Visiting Professor at Columbia Law School in 2016. She is a member of the supervisory board of Deutsche Postbank and a committee member at Alte Leipziger – Hallesche Group.