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Jacob Rosenberg and Avi Weiss | 98 Introduction The past half - century has seen the evolution of an approach toward law that is based on the principles of economic analysis . This approach views the legal system as a mechanism by which people can be persuaded to behave in a manner that maximizes “social welfare” – the collective good of society . In accident law, for instance, Calabresi ( 1970 ) has argued that one aim of the law should be to reduce the sum of the cost of accidents and the cost of avoiding accidents, thus maximizing the collective good of society . This approach was formalized by Diamond ( 1974 ) , Cooter ( 1984 ) , and Shavell ( 1987 ) . Some scholars expressed the view, early on, that rulings in torts cases tend to be consistent with economic efficiency objectives ( Posner, 1972, 1973 ; Landes and Posner, 1987 ) . Of course, there were those who disagreed with Calabresi’s argument . For instance, Dworkin ( 1980, 1986 ) argued that economic efficiency is not an appro...
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