Money and Markets: Essays in Honor of Leland B. Yeager

Leland’s favorite economists 111A preliminary summaryIn the preceding analysis, we have identified constitutional guarantees with respectto basic rights on the one hand and procedural rules on the other. There are threebasic rights the guarantee of which has to be considered as central from an economicpoint of view. These guarantees protect the right of freedom of contract, theinstitution of liability in the sense that those responsible for actions or a lack thereofcan be held responsible for the effects of their activities or the lack thereof; and theinstitution of private property in the sense that clearly specified and meaningfulalternatives become available for economic agents to dispose with goods andservices. These basic economic rights are supported by three ancillary economicrights, guaranteeing a stable legal environment, a stable currency providing for acommon language of contractual relationships, and open markets which includethe right to establish such markets in areas where they do not exist.Procedural guarantees cover either the relationship between public bodies, orthe relationship between public bodies and private citizens or other legal entities.The principle of due process requires in this context that citizens and legal personshave access to courts and bodies of appeal in meaningful ways, barring purelyceremonial procedures.The economic analysis of constitutional rights can, obviously, not substitute forconstitutional jurisprudence. But economic analysis can substantially enhance thesharpness of jurisprudential analysis by spelling out the consequences of particularconstitutional provisions (or the lack thereof) and the systematic interconnectionsbetween basic legal institutions such as property, contract, and liability, as wellas legal procedures. In this sense, the economic analysis can be integrated intojurisprudential analysis and by being embodied into the interpretation of constitutionalprovisions, economic analysis can become an integral part of constitutionalscholarship.To the inadvertent, since Leland likes to have the precise language beforehand,here is the original:Insertion IFriedrich Nietzsche: Die fröhliche WissenschaftAbschnitt 377Wir Heimatlosen. – Es fehlt unter den Europäern von heute nicht an solchen,die ein Recht haben, sich in einem abhebenden und ehrenden SinneHeimatlose zu nennen, – ihnen gerade sei meine geheime Weisheit und gayascienza ausdrücklich ans Herz gelegt! Denn ihr Los ist hart, ihre Hoffnungungewiß, es ist ein Kunststück, ihnen einen Trost zu erfinden, – aber was hilftes! Wir Kinder der Zukunft, wie vermöchten wir in diesem Heute zu Hausesein! Wir sind allen Idealen abgünstig, auf welche hin einer sich sogar indieser zerbrechlichen, zerbrochenen Übergangszeit noch heimisch fühlen