Edward Lopez: The Pursuit of Justice: Law and Economics of Legal Institutions

Published: Sept. 13, 2010, 3:24 p.m.

Jeanne Hoffman interviews, Edward J. Lopez about his new book, "The Pursuit of Justice: Law and Economics of Legal Institutions." 

From the publisher:

The Pursuit of Justice is a thoroughgoing analysis of the bureaucratization and politicization of the U.S. legal system and how the law works in practice rather than in theory. The book looks specifically at how decision makers in the law—judges, lawyers, juries, police, forensic experts, and more—respond to economic incentive structures. Faulty incentives lie at the heart of numerous failures of the U.S. legal system, but rather than the romanticized version of the law as portrayed in television dramas and in much academic research, the authors portrays the legal system as it actually performs in practice