A Law and Economics Perspective on Legal Families

In this paper, we review the economics of legal families. We describe the non-economic perspectives on the rise and decline of legal families in comparative law. At the same time, we summarize the main critiques to the premises, methods, and conclusions of the legal origins literature. We relate this discussion to the hypothesis of the efficiency of the common law and its shortcomings. We conclude the paper with possible methodological goals for future research in this field