Engagement with economics: The new hybrids of family law/law and economics thinking

Economic analysis has become a pervasive force in legal academia and legal commentary, and family law is no longer the haven from this form of analysis that it once seemed to be. As law and economics theorists have explored the ways in which rational choice theory might extend fruitfully to the issues within family law, family law scholars have considered what of value can be learned from economic analysis. Many family law scholars seem to feel more comfortable with variations away from traditional forms of analysis: New Institutional Economics, behavioral law and economics, game theory, etc. Economic analysis, in all its variations, is a tool whose usefulness cannot be denied. It is an approach which helps to remind us of unintended consequences and incentive effects. People’s values and preferences are arguably more likely to be changed by analysis given in normative terms rather than commodified terms.