Description: Simple Rules for a Complex World by Richard A. Epstein Epstein offers a sophisticated agenda for comprehensive social reform that undoes much of the mischief of the modern regulatory state. At a time when most Americans have come to distrust government at all levels, Epstein shows how a consistent application of economic and political theory allows us to steer between too much and too little. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Too many laws, too many lawyers--thats the necessary consequence of a complex society, or so conventional wisdom has it. Countless pundits insist that any call for legal simplification smacks of nostalgia, sentimentality, or naiveté. But the conventional view, the noted legal scholar Richard Epstein tells us, has it exactly backward. The richer texture of modern society allows for more individual freedom and choice. And it allows us to organize a comprehensive legal order capable of meeting the technological and social challenges of today on the basis of just six core principles. In this book, Epstein demonstrates how.The first four rules, which regulate human interactions in ordinary social life, concern the autonomy of the individual, property, contract, and tort. Taken together these rules establish and protect consistent entitlements over all resources, both human and natural. These rules are backstopped by two more rules that permit forced exchanges on payment of just compensation when private or public necessity so dictates. Epstein then uses these six building blocks to clarify many intractable problems in the modern legal landscape. His discussion of employment contracts explains the hidden virtues of contracts at will and exposes the crippling weaknesses of laws regarding collective bargaining, unjust dismissal, employer discrimination, and comparable worth. And his analysis shows how laws governing liability for products and professional services, corporate transactions, and environmental protection have generated unnecessary social strife and economic dislocation by violating these basic principles.Simple Rules for a Complex World offers a sophisticated agenda for comprehensive social reform that undoes much of the mischief of the modern regulatory state. At a time when most Americans have come to distrust and fear government at all levels, Epstein shows how a consistent application of economic and political theory allows us to steer a middle path between too much and too little. Notes New York Times Notable Book of 1995 Author Biography Richard A. Epstein is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Law and Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. He is the author of, among other books, Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain; Simple Rules for a Complex World; Design for Liberty: Private Property, Public Administration, and the Rule of Law; and The Dubious Morality of Modern Administrative Law. Table of Contents Preface Introduction: Too Many Lawyers, Too Much Law PART 1: CUTTING THROUGH COMPLEXITY 1. The Virtues of Simplicity 2. The Enemies of Simplicity PART 2: THE SIMPLE RULES 3. Autonomy and Property 4. Contract 5. Torts 6. Necessity, Coordination, and Just Compensation 7. Take and Pay PART 3: THE RULES IN ACTION 8. Contracting for Labor 9. Employment Discrimination and Comparable Worth 10. Professional Liability for Financial Loss 11. The Origins of Product Liability Law 12. The Contemporary Product Liability Scene 13. The Internal Life of the Corporation 14. The Corporation and the World 15. Environmental Protection and Private Property Conclusion: The Challenges to Simple Rules Notes Index of Statutes Index of Cases General Index Review A book called The Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America by attorney Philip Howard has captured the attention of Washingtons policy community with its maddening accounts of overzealous regulation and complex litigation. But Mr. Howards appeal for enforcing rules with a dose of common sense never sets forth a framework for bringing about legal simplification. Thats why Richard Epsteins new book...is such a suitable companion to Mr. Howards battle cry. Mr. Epstein...believes that the traditional common law is actually more attuned to the modern world...He argues that the more complex the world, the less bureaucrats and lawmakers can know about how everything interacts, and the more perverse and inefficient the law will become...Mr. Epsteins relentlessly logical arguments tell us why we should return to the tried-and-true rules of the common law. Like manners, the common law has proven useful and long lasting precisely because it is so well-suited to a world of strangers. -- John H. Fund * Wall Street Journal *Richard A. Epstein, a professor of law at the University of Chicago, has a record of proposing radical and extreme alterations in key areas of law--alterations that perhaps initially could be dismissed as so far from the center of legal thinking as to be of only theoretical interest but then turn out to have much more political life in them than one could have thought possible...Mr. Epstein has to be taken seriously, and not only because of the power of his reasoning and his authoritative command of the common law and political philosophy...The reasoning is strong, the knowledge of specific areas of policies is deep, and behind them stands his basic commitment to a more productive and efficient society...It is bracing to undergo a cold bath in the pure doctrine of the simple rules, and in many areas they will give us some practical guidance. -- Nathan Glazer * New York Times Book Review *Simple Rules for a Complex World is a clear, consistent, libertarian economic approach to the law that should keep you interested from start to finish. -- Charles W. Chesbro * Trial *This book is a tour de force of legal history and analysis. It would have been timeless in any event, but the current Congress agenda makes it timely as well. Property rights, product and professional liability, a flat tax and environmental protection are now front and center; labor law reform and comparable worth may soon crowd their way onto the agenda as well. Long-range vision and wisdom are too seldom combined with topical analysis, but Simple Rules for a Complex World has this invaluable quality...What Mr. Epstein has accomplished, then, is not the fabrication of a framework but the distillation of one. He has articulated and rationalized basic principles of law in a creative way that shows these principles to have both historical and theoretical primacy. At a time when much legal scholarship is devoted to the deconstruction of the root of our legal order, Mr. Epstein has written a book of reconstruction. -- Roger Clegg * Washington Times *A persuasive argument for the American legal systems return to the common-sense rules of common law, by a distinguished professor at the University of Chicago. * Chicago Tribune * Promotional New York Times Notable Book of 1995 Review Quote This book is a tour de force of legal history and analysis. It would have been timeless in any event, but the current Congress agenda makes it timely as well. Property rights, product and professional liability, a flat tax and environmental protection are now front and center; labor law reform and comparable worth may soon crowd their way onto the agenda as well. Long-range vision and wisdom are too seldom combined with topical analysis, but Simple Rules for a Complex World has this invaluable quality...What Mr. Epstein has accomplished, then, is not the fabrication of a framework but the distillation of one. He has articulated and rationalized basic principles of law in a creative way that shows these principles to have both historical and theoretical primacy. At a time when much legal scholarship is devoted to the deconstruction of the root of our legal order, Mr. Epstein has written a book of reconstruction. Details ISBN0674808215 Author Richard A. Epstein Short Title SIMPLE RULES FOR A COMPLEX WOR Publisher Harvard University Press Language English ISBN-10 0674808215 ISBN-13 9780674808218 Media Book Format Paperback DEWEY 340.1 Year 1997 Imprint Harvard University Press Place of Publication Cambridge, Mass Country of Publication United States Birth 1943 Residence Chicago, IL, US Affiliation University of Chicago Pages 378 Edition Description Revised DOI 10.1604/9780674808218 Illustrations none UK Release Date 1997-03-25 AU Release Date 1997-03-25 NZ Release Date 1997-03-25 US Release Date 1997-03-25 Publication Date 1997-03-25 Audience Professional & Vocational We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:161738628;
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ISBN-13: 9780674808218
Book Title: Simple Rules for a Complex World
Number of Pages: 378 Pages
Publication Name: Simple Rules for a Complex World
Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Item Height: 235 mm
Subject: Economics, Law, Government
Publication Year: 1997
Type: Textbook
Item Weight: 535 g
Subject Area: Political Science
Author: Richard A. Epstein
Item Width: 156 mm
Format: Paperback