Feminist Foundations for the Law of Business: One Law and Economics Scholar's Survey and (Re)View

Abstract:     
The purpose of this Essay is to suggest frameworks and modes of inquiry for applying feminist legal analysis to business law and the related theory of law and economics. It does so in two ways. One is to assess works already written by feminist scholars in the business law arena, highlighting how those contributions have begun to pave the way towards enriching the scope of business law analysis. The other is to offer two new roles for feminist jurisprudence. One role is to define just (that is, fair) distributions of rights and the other role is to define social judgments of value, both within the context of law and economics' efficiency criteria for efficient allocation and cost benefit analyses. As a result, this Essay demonstrates that feminist jurisprudence can find fruitful roles consistent with its moral goals through interaction with law and economics, particularly with regard to analyzing business law issues.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 65

Keywords: Feminist Legal Theory, Business Law, Law and Economics, Feminist Jurisprudence, Fairness, Public Choice, Welfare Maximization, Efficiency Criteria, Cost Benefit Analysis, Rights distribution, Cultural feminism, Business Torts, China, Free Markets, Chicago School, Mass Torts

JEL Classification: K19, K39, A13, J16, Z00

working papers series