An Appreciative Comment on Coase\u27s The Problem of Social Cost: A View from the Left

Professor Coase\u27s article, The Problem of Social Cost, played a significant role in launching the law and economics movement. Coase\u27s insights have been used extensively by the law and economics movement as authority and inspiration for the development of an essentially right-leaning approach to law. In this Article, Professor Schlag undertakes to reexamine the original article. He shows that Coase\u27s deconstructive moves opened up a series of volatile and radical inquiries. He then argues that the law and economics movement, in general, and Judge Posner, in particular, shut down the dangerous radicalism of these inquiries by hypostasizing Coase\u27s insights and formalizing Coase\u27s approach into a set of stereotyped formulae. By appeal to Coase\u27s original insights, Professor Schlag demonstrates that the claims of the right to exclusivity in Coase\u27s approach are unjustified. He concludes by showing that Coase\u27s insights can yield some left-leaning implications for the understanding of law and its relation to economics