Traditionally, in a world formed by states, political, legal and moral responsibilities of governments, private corporations and individuals are mostly confined within national boundaries. Today, economic and ecological interdependence as well as global migrations of capital, goods, people, ideas and diseases challenge the Westphalian distinction between the domestic and the international. Global problems challenge the traditional inter-state organization of the world.

This course explores the encounter between "Europe" and the "non-western" world. More specifically, it examines the ways in which the western international order has conceived and managed the encounter with the non-western, the "peripheries" or "third world." The history of this encounter has been certainly fraught with violence and war. From the Spanish conquest of the "new world" at the end of the fifteenth century, to the scramble for Africa in the nineteenth century, western states have sought to extend their rule overseas by force.

This course introduces students to economic analysis of legal issues.  Many familiar approaches to legal analysis focus on the justness, fairness, or legislative intent behind legal rules.  By contrast, economic approaches are more apt to inquire about the incentives, outcomes, and levels of efficiency that legal rules create.  For example, what is the socially optimal level of care that should be expected of those who generate risk?  How and to what extent should the law deter contracting parties from breaking their promises?  Is prevention or punishment a more cos