Wednesday, October 04, 2006

The Nuisance of the Law

Her's an interesting passage I came across today while reading for my law and economics class (emphasis mine):


"Our historical survey of nuisance law has reflected the differing emphasis upon efficiency and distributive justice.  As noted, the English system of property law placed a preeminent value upon property rights.  It was thus primarily concerned with distributive justice in accord with those rights.  For that reason the English system favored the injunction as a remedy for a nuisance, regardless of disparate economic consequences.  However, when the concept of nuisance was incorporated into American law, it encountered a different value system.  Respect for property rights came to be tempered by the tort-related concept of fault, and the demands of a developing nation placed greater emphasis upon the economic objective of efficiency relative to the objective of distributive justice." -- Barnes and Stout, p. 71

I wonder how much this difference in the law impacted historical rates of growth in America compared to Britain?

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