This thorough and detailed book provides a comprehensive analysis of the various ways in which laws and rules are produced and lays the foundations for a systematic understanding of lawmaking as a production process. Leading scholars and experts provide coverage and insight on key issues such as the optimal specificity and timing of legal intervention, the nature of expressive law, the production of customary law, and the effect of social norms and social stigma on legal compliance. The original essays shed new light on important issues concerning the institutional design of lawmaking through the lens of economic analysis and public choice theory, and together form an important reference tool.

This state-of-the-art resource forms part of the Encyclopedia of Law and Economics, and will appeal strongly to researchers and postgraduate students from both law and economics backgrounds.