ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LAW AND ECONOMICS. A CIVILISTS MARGIN NOTES ON ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF LAW.

Law and Economics consists in analyzing law and legal phenomena by applying instruments proper to economic science. The growing importance of this method raises the question whether the study and application of private law can draw benefits from economics. In the context of Polish civil law, the article proposes to approach this question in two steps. First, it seeks to identify the principal areas in which economics and economic concepts may influence private law and/or supplement its traditional, dogmatic instruments (in law-making, in the interpretation of legal provisions, and in the application of the law by judges). Second, it attempts to identify the limitations which pose an obstacle to a more wide-spread use of economic methods among lawyers (education, limitations inherent to econometric methods and the structure of law itself). The analysis concludes that while economic concepts may and should be used in jurisprudence more widely, it is important for lawyers to maintain a broader perspective acknowledging that the legal system is build around a broader set of autonomous values which are not reducible to a cost-benefit analysis and to a merely utilitarian approach.