On May 5 and 6, Boalt will host the 16th annual meeting of the American Law & Economics Association (ALEA). The annual event, which draws some 300 academic participants (lawyers, economists and other social scientists) from around the world, is recognized for its distinguished speakers, rigorous academic sessions and broad interdisciplinary reach. Program sessions range from torts and contracts to current challenges to the death penalty, medical malpractice and direct democracy, as well as antitrust, regulation and intellectual property.
Friday evening’s featured dinner speaker, Oliver Hart of Harvard University, will give a talk “Contracts as Reference Points.” According to Dan Rubinfeld, the Robert L. Bridges Professor of Law and Professor of Economics, “This year’s exciting program continues a long-standing tradition of growth—in the numbers of participants, in the range of intellectual issues raised by the law and economics community and in the extent of intellectual and social interaction among the participants.”
ALEA was founded in 1991 to encourage and advance the study of the economics of law, legal institutions and legal policy. Rubinfeld is the current president of ALEA, the third Boalt faculty member to take a leadership role with the association.