This edited volume is the first collection of essays exploring the intersection of social economics and the law, providing alternatives to neoclassical law-and-economics and applying them to real-world issues. Law is a social enterprise concerned with values such as justice, dignity, and equality, as well as efficiency - which is the same way that social economists conceive of the economy itself. Social economists and legal scholars alike need to acknowledge the interrelationship between the economy and the law in a broader ethical context than enabled by mainstream law-and-economics.The ten chapters in Law and Social Economics, written by an international assortment of scholars from economics, philosophy, and law, employ a wide variety of approaches and methods to show how a more ethically nuanced approach to economics and the law can illuminate both fields and open up new avenues for studying social-economic behavior, policy, and outcomes in all their ethical and legal complexity.

Wayne Edwards, University of Nebraska at Kearney, USAClaire Finkelstein, University of Pennsylvania, USARegina Gemignani, The World BankDavid George, La Salle University, USARobert LaJeunesse, US Equal Employment Opportunity CommissionDaniel MacDonald, California State University, San Bernardino, USASteven McMullen, Hope College, USADaniel Molling, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, USAOsny da Silva Filho, Fundação Getulio Vargas, BrazilStefano Solari, University of Padua, ItalyQuentin Wodon, The World Bank

PART I: FOUNDATIONS 1. Towards a Contractarian Theory of Law; Claire Finkelstein 2. Environmental Ethics, Economics, and Property Law; Steven McMullen and Daniel Molling 3. Individual Rights, Economic Transactions and Recognition: A Legal Approach to Social Economics; Stefano Solari 4. Institutionalist Method and Forensic Proof; Robert M. LaJeunesse 5. Retributivist Justice and Dignity: Finding a Role for Economics in Criminal Justice; Mark D. White PART II: APPLICATIONS 6. Female Genital Mutilation and the Law: A Qualitative Case Study; Regina Gemignani and Quentin Wodon 7. An Unexamined Oxymoron: Trust but Verify; David George 8. On the Question of Court Activism and Economic Interests in 19th Century Married Women's Property Law; Daniel MacDonald 9. Divergent Outcomes of Land Rights Claims of Indigenous Peoples in the United States; Wayne Edwards 10. Punitive (and) Pain-and-Suffering Damages in Brazil; Osny da Silva Filho