Abstract:
The fallibility of the “efficiency” concept as developed by the neoclassical economists (in a non-personal and non-subjective perspective) laid the foundations for an allegedly objective and value-free – but, de facto, a meaningless, nonrealistic and arbitrary – perspective on law-as-a-social-wealth-maximizer-device. The acquis of the Austrian School in the field of Law & Economics is threefold: first it demonstrates that law has an a priori, rationalistic and natural way of being discovered (although in history the path of natural discovery was surpassed by the “positive” political design) and an unique embodiment – private property; secondly, the analysis of efficiency can by no means preclude the analysis of the proper arrangement of (property) rights, as, ultimately, efficiency can be asserted only by the acting people, regarding only their own acts and involving only their own property; thirdly, only as long as we agree that the ethics of property is the reasonable censor of law, can, therefore, law’s influence on economy be formulated – with those laws granting invasion on property (aggression) being, by necessity, harmful for social efficiency and wealth, while those consistent with the property rights becoming the very premises of (ex-ante) Pareto efficient outcomes in society (though not an ex post guaranty, this as long as man is not an errorless being).