Response to Robert Ahdieh's Beyond Individualism in Law and Economics

Abstract

In his latest article, Professor Robert Ahdieh takes a broad, open-handed swipe at conventional law and economics' reliance on methodological individualism. He hits solidly and right on point at those many places where the discipline is vulnerable to this critique. But is the critique is too expansive? One might read in Professor Ahdieh's article an assertion that methodological individualism has completely blinded, or at least distorted, the view of law and economics scholarship with respect to identity, culture, politics, norms, society, evolutionary processes, and history, among other considerations. If that is his assertion, a solution for these pervasive problems would seem a hopeless endeavor for the discipline. It is hard to imagine a law and economics framework that adequately addresses these concerns and remains recognizable.