Conglomerate Blog: Business, Law, Economics & Society

The semester is waning. I've been traveling. It's a busy time. Still, I've read Peter's posts with interest and, time and again, been tempted to put fingers to keyboard to write on the general topic that he's explored so fruitfully in law reviews and blog posts: happiness research.

I've had 2 children in the past 4.5 years, so take this with some salinity: I think happiness research has been the academic development that's had the most impact on me personally in the recent past. I mean, I love the corporate law and securities, don't get me wrong. But hedonics: what makes me happy as a person? A short commute over long commute makes people markedly more happy. People with children say that kids make them happy, but day-to-day kids make you unhappier than being without. Are single people happier than married people? Does the memory of vacation give you more pleasure than the vacation itself? I find it all fascinating and it shapes my daily choices and reaffirms (or causes me to question) my life choices. Happiness research goes to the core of myself as a person.

Still I wonder: what does this have to do with law? Which is the challenge Peter seems to issue, backhandedly, in his post. I don't know that I'm afraid of law and emotions: I just don't see the academic implications of an admittedly fascinating field of research. Cue Abrams and Keren, who say

[Mainstream legal academics ] have not predictably viewed it as a resource for addressing questions within their substantive fields; it is often treated as a novel academic pastime rather than an instrument for addressing practical problems. This reception contrasts sharply with that accorded to two fields that have also challenged dominant notions of (legal) rationality: behavioral law and economics, and the emerging field of law and neuroscience....

Notwithstanding the breadth of its epistemological challenges, law and emotions scholarship can contribute to the familiar normative work of the law—revising and strengthening existing doctrine, improving decisionmaking, and informing new legal policies. Moreover, it can facilitate the less familiar but nevertheless valuable task of using law to improve people’s affective lives.

I don't know. The studies Peter cites about emotion governing financial markets sounds fascinating and worth reading. What's the legal payoff, though? I get that, over time, $6000 spent on a trip to Europe will give me more pleasure than spending $6,000 on a more expensive car. That's useful information to me (although admittedly it just reinforces my prior inclinations). But legal implications?

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The semester is waning. I've been traveling. It's a busy time. Still, I've read Peter's posts with interest and, time and again, been tempted to put fingers to keyboard to write on the general topic that he's explored so fruitfully in law reviews and blog posts: happiness research.

I've had 2 children in the past 4.5 years, so take this with some salinity: I think happiness research has been the academic development that's had the most impact on me personally in the recent past. I mean, I love the corporate law and securities, don't get me wrong. But hedonics: what makes me happy as a person? A short commute over long commute makes people markedly more happy. People with children say that kids make them happy, but day-to-day kids make you unhappier than being without. Are single people happier than married people? Does the memory of vacation give you more pleasure than the vacation itself? I find it all fascinating and it shapes my daily choices and reaffirms (or causes me to question) my life choices. Happiness research goes to the core of myself as a person.

Still I wonder: what does this have to do with law? Which is the challenge Peter seems to issue, backhandedly, in his post. I don't know that I'm afraid of law and emotions: I just don't see the academic implications of an admittedly fascinating field of research. Cue Abrams and Keren, who say

[Mainstream legal academics ] have not predictably viewed it as a resource for addressing questions within their substantive fields; it is often treated as a novel academic pastime rather than an instrument for addressing practical problems. This reception contrasts sharply with that accorded to two fields that have also challenged dominant notions of (legal) rationality: behavioral law and economics, and the emerging field of law and neuroscience....

Notwithstanding the breadth of its epistemological challenges, law and emotions scholarship can contribute to the familiar normative work of the law—revising and strengthening existing doctrine, improving decisionmaking, and informing new legal policies. Moreover, it can facilitate the less familiar but nevertheless valuable task of using law to improve people’s affective lives.

I don't know. The studies Peter cites about emotion governing financial markets sounds fascinating and worth reading. What's the legal payoff, though? I get that, over time, $6000 spent on a trip to Europe will give me more pleasure than spending $6,000 on a more expensive car. That's useful information to me (although admittedly it just reinforces my prior inclinations). But legal implications?

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