From fingerprinting to criminal sentencing, from lawyer licensing to judicial selection, and from eminent domain to wealth transfers via class-action lawsuits, how do perverse incentives impact the law and what reforms would create a more just and efficient legal system?
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From fingerprinting to criminal sentencing, from lawyer licensing to judicial selection, and from eminent domain to wealth transfers via class-action lawsuits, how do perverse incentives impact the law and what reforms would create a more just and efficient legal system?
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Independent Institute Research Fellow Edward Lopéz, Associate Professor of Law and Economics at San Jose State University and editor of the new Institute book The Pursuit of Justice, talks with Institute President David Theroux about the faulty incentives at the heart of government legal failures and whether market-based alternatives can provide viable solutions to the serious problems caused by the bureaucratization and politicization of the law.
In this hilarious and insightful examination of Adam Smith’s work, P.J. shows us why this seminal book on economic liberty is so relevant today and why it has been so revolutionary.
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America’s most provocative humorist, P. J. O’Rourke, has read pioneering economist Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, first published in 1776, “so we don’t have to”—and the results are as entertaining as they are enlightening.
