Common-law economics explicitly integrates an understanding of the legal framework into economic theory. This is an all-important understanding, and the absence of it explains much of the failing of modern economic theory. Property and contract are legal institutions that fundamentally determine economic realities. So are credit and debt; and so is the institution of money. One of the great failings of modern conservative (“neo-classical”) economic theory is the inveterate attempt it makes to remove these categories from economic analysis, so as to obtain a look at a supposed “real” economy behind this legal, monetary “veil.” This is a fool’s errand. These legal institutions are the building blocks of economic life. Removing them from consideration dooms economic theory to failure before it ever gets off the ground.

The books included in this series all address this issue, and operate in terms of an economic theory that understands and implements the legal institutions that frame economic activity.