| This dissertation explores the contribution Austrian economics can make to legal analysis, thus providing a new jurisprudential approach for examining law and the legal process. The dissertation is divided into three parts.; Part 1. "Austrian Economics and the Current Debate Between Critical Legal Studies and Law and Economics." Currently, there are two major schools of jurisprudence, law and economics and critical legal studies. These schools of thought are very divided and little constructive dialogue has taken place between them. This part of the dissertation establishes the Austrian school's place among these leading jurisprudential movements, and shows how Austrian economics can provide new insights into the debate and form a framework for communication.; Part 2. "An Austrian Economic View of Legal Process." This paper adds to the jurisprudence of legal institutions by applying Austrian economic concepts to legal process. Just as Austrian economics emphasizes the market as a discovery process, this paper will show that law is also a discovery process. The paper concludes that legal process and legal institutions should work to diffuse knowledge throughout society, to make it possible for people to engage in their daily lives with an economy of knowledge, and to make it easier for market participants to coordinate their plans with those of others.; Part 3. "Tax Legislation and Austrian Economics." This paper examines the legislative process from an Austrian economic perspective by focusing on tax legislation. Austrian economics stresses the uncertainty and ignorance with which economic actors must contend when making economic decisions. In addition, Austrian economics stresses principles of subjective cost. By examining tax legislation from these perspectives, this paper provides new insights into the legislative process. More generally, the application of Austrian theories of cost to the legislative process is shown to provide a basis for a theory of public choice that is not dependent on the neoclassical paradigm. |
