Welfare Analysis
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Wealth Maximization
A historically influential but contested normative criterion associated with economic analysis of law, especially Posner, that evaluates legal rules by their capacity to increase the value of resources.
Why It Matters
The concept is important because it shaped early law-and-economics debates while also exposing disputes over distribution, rights, willingness to pay, and the relation between efficiency and welfare.
Selected Literature
A short list of directly relevant archive entries.
1973
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2001
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2016
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Related Cases
1943
Securities Regulation
SEC v. C.M. Joiner Leasing Corp.
320 U.S. 344 (1943)
Whether sales of oil-lease assignments promoted together with a promised test well were investment contracts subject to federal securities law.
2020
Securities Regulation
Liu v. SEC
591 U.S. 71 (2020)
When disgorgement in an SEC civil action qualifies as equitable relief authorized by federal securities law.