<b>Pragmatism in Philosophy, Realism in Law and the Double Assault on Classical Political Economy: the foundations of the First Law and Economics Movement in American Progressive Era America (1880-1930)

Abstract

This essay aims to discuss the so--called First Law and Economics Movement, linked to the American Progressive Era, whose design allowed a paradigmatic rupture in the american legal practice. Lawyers and economists have joined together to unravel by one hand,  the positions assumed by the distinctlyeconomistic U.S. Supreme Court in the early twentieth century,  based on laissez-faire  and justified, contrary  sense, as mere formalists; on the other hand, sought to propose interaction of both disciplines (law and economics) to enhance  the consideration of historical andsocial aspects of judicial decisions and, therefore, open for the discussion of the possibilityof redefining the economic fundamentals of thegeneral welfare of society. In this sense, it welcomes, therefore, the existence of an economic movement of the law, linked with the progressists and clearly earlier from that started in the 60s of the twentieth century by the University of Chicago.