George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School

Law Professors Workshop on Teaching Capitalism


Event Details

  • Date:
  • Venue: Park Hyatt Beaver Creek
  • Division: The Henry G. Manne Program in Law & Economics Studies

The Workshop for Law Professors on Teaching Capitalism was a five-day program that deepened law professors understanding of the fundamentals of capitalism, educated the participants in methods and techniques for teaching about capitalism as a stand-alone course in their own law schools, and helped guide these professors in ways to integrate lessons learned from capitalism and discussions around the topic into their subject-specific doctrinal courses like corporations, constitutional law, or on common law subjects.

The workshop was designed to enrich the curricula of law schools across the country by encouraging a more robust discussion of capitalism and its relationship with the law in courses, by giving its attendees the tools necessary to take this instructional guidance back to their home institutions. Across 9 lectures (and a film night — as a case study in using popular culture to teach the law and economics of capitalism), law professors learned from the leading experts on the pedagogy of teaching capitalism and from other key scholars in the subjects covered. Yale Law School Professor George Priest—the only law professor presently teaching a stand-alone course on capitalism in a law school curriculum—lead the workshop. Professor Mike Munger—who teaches stand-alone courses on capitalism at Duke University also lead several sessions at the program. And Professors Donald Boudreaux of George Mason University and Jim Huffman from Lewis & Clark Law School were also instructors. The program ended with a roundtable discussion among all participants to brainstorm and share ideas.