This provocative book brings together twenty-plus contributors from the fields of law, economics, and international relations to look at whether the U.S. legal system is contributing to the country's long postwar decline. The book provides a comprehensive overview of the interactions between economics and the law - in such areas as corruption, business regulation, and federalism - and explains how our system works differently from the one in most countries, with contradictory and hard to understand business regulations, tort laws that vary from state to state, and surprising judicial interpretations of clearly written contracts. This imposes far heavier litigation costs on American companies and hampers economic growth.

Declared dead some twenty-five years ago, the idea of freedom of contract has enjoyed a remarkable intellectual revival. In "The Fall and Rise of Freedom of Contract "leading scholars in the fields of contract law and law-and-economics analyze the new interest in bargaining freedom.
The 1970s was a decade of regulatory triumphalism in North America, marked by a surge in consumer, securities, and environmental regulation. Legal scholars predicted the "death of contract" and its replacement by regulation and reliance-based theories of liability. Instead, we have witnessed the reemergence of free bargaining norms. This revival can be attributed to the rise of law-and-economics, which laid bare the intellectual failure of anticontractarian theories. Scholars in this school note that consumers are not as helpless as they have been made out to be, and that intrusive legal rules meant ostensibly to help them often leave them worse off. Contract law principles have also been very robust in areas far afield from traditional contract law, and the essays in this volume consider how free bargaining rights might reasonably be extended in tort, property, land-use planning, bankruptcy, and divorce and family law.
This book will be of particular interest to legal scholars and specialists in contract law. Economics and public policy planners will also be challenged by its novel arguments.

"Contributors." Gregory S. Alexander, Margaret F. Brinig, F. H. Buckley, Robert Cooter, Steven J. Eagle, Robert C. Ellickson, Richard A. Epstein, William A. Fischel, Michael Klausner, Bruce H. Kobayashi, Geoffrey P. Miller, Timothy J. Muris, Robert H. Nelson, Eric A. Posner, Robert K. Rasmussen, Larry E. Ribstein, Roberta Romano, Paul H. Rubin, Alan Schwartz, Elizabeth S. Scott, Robert E. Scott, Michael J. Trebilcock

After the Democratic Party divided Americans along gender and racial lines, F.H. Buckley argues that the Republican Party can become the natural governing party again by uniting Americans around a return to their roots-championing the common good, liberty, and equality. "Frank Buckley shakes conservatives by their lapels in this sharp-edged vision for a Republican Party. Progressivism Conservatism does what's needed-disrupt received wisdom with pragmatic, innovative ideas." -Philip K. Howard, author of The Death of Common Sense "F. H. Buckley shows us how a seeming contradiction can lead to the healing of a fractured country." -Roger L. Simon, award-winning novelist and editor, Epoch Times The Republican Party must return to its roots as a progressive conservative party that defends the American Dream, the idea that whoever you are, you can get ahead and know that your children will have it better than you did. It must show how the Democrats have become the party of inequality and immobility and that they created what structural racism exists through their unjust education, immigration, and job-killing policies. Republicans must seek to drain the swamp by limiting the clout of lobbyists and interest groups. They must also be nationalists, and as American nationalism is defined by the liberal nationalism of our founders, the party must reject the illiberalism of extremists on the Left and Right. As progressives, Republicans must also recognize nationalism's leftward gravitational force and the way in which it demands that the party serve the common good through policies that protect the less fortunate among our countrymen. At a time when the Left asks us to scorn our country, Republicans must also be the conservative party that defends our families, the nobility of American ideals, and the founders' republican virtues. By championing these policies, the Republicans will retain the new voters Trump brought to the GOP as well as those who left the party because of him. And as progressive conservatives, the GOP will become America's natural governing party.

"Bravo! I'll say nothing funny about it, for it is a
superior piece of work."
--P. J. O'Rourke
"F. H. Buckley's "The Morality of Laughter" is at once
a humorous look at serious matters and a serious
book about humor."
--"Crisis Magazine"
"Buckley has written a . ne and funny book that will
be read with pleasure and instruction."
--"First Things"
." . . written elegantly and often wittily. . . ."
--"National Post"
." . . a fascinating philosophical exposition of
laughter. . . ."
--"National Review"
." . . at once a wise and highly amusing book."
--"Wall Street Journal Online"
." . . a useful reminder that a cheery society is a
healthy one."
--"Weekly Standard"

"Bravo! I'll say nothing funny about it, for it is a
superior piece of work."
--P. J. O'Rourke
"F. H. Buckley's "The Morality of Laughter" is at once
a humorous look at serious matters and a serious
book about humor."
--"Crisis Magazine"
"Buckley has written a . ne and funny book that will
be read with pleasure and instruction."
--"First Things"
." . . written elegantly and often wittily. . . ."
--"National Post"
." . . a fascinating philosophical exposition of
laughter. . . ."
--"National Review"
." . . at once a wise and highly amusing book."
--"Wall Street Journal Online"
." . . a useful reminder that a cheery society is a
healthy one."
--"Weekly Standard"