THE MORALITY OF LAW AND ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT

Abstract This paper explores in brief the economic basis of Lon L. Fuller’s morality of law thesis, and its relevance to discussions on the complex relations between law and economics. Almost all the flaws of national and international institutions of economics are the result of a failure to set the right balance between the aspiration for ‘an optimum allocation of resources’ and the duty to provide ‘legal rules conducive to security and predictability’. Both the aspiration and duty constitute the two kinds of moralities that Fuller recognized to show that ‘law is inherently moral’, and used to illuminate the role of an institutional setting responsible for adjudicating rules for the allocation of economic resources.