Rutgers catalogResearched guideSIRS history4 section records

01:220:395

Law And Economics

ECONOMICS

School 01 — New Brunswick School of Arts and Sciences
credits
3
Core
SOEHS
Typical seasons
Fall, Spring
Fall 2026 sections
1
Open snapshot
0 open in snapshot

Course guide

AI-generated overview

Course fingerprint 10 AI-generated signals

Difficulty

2/5
Why

The official Rutgers description is topic broad but not especially technical, and the limited student discussion frames the course as more instructor-specific than notoriously hard.

Workload

2/5
Why

Available Rutgers sources do not signal labs, coding, or project-heavy structure, but the lack of a public syllabus keeps this estimate conservative.

Pacing

3/5
Why

The catalog spans contracts, property, liability, crime, monopoly, discrimination, health care, and pollution, so the semester likely moves across many applications even if each unit is introductory.

Projects

1/5
Why

Current public Rutgers materials point to a discussion-and-analysis elective rather than a build-style project course.

Exams

3/5
Why

The only public student signal mentions dropped exam grades and asks about quizzes and homework, which suggests exams matter but leaves the exact balance unclear.

Math

2/5
Why

The course uses economic reasoning about incentives and efficiency, but the official description does not suggest a quantitatively intensive methods class.

Memorization

3/5
Why

A broad survey of legal-policy applications usually requires retaining frameworks and examples, though the public evidence is too thin to score this aggressively.

Abstraction

3/5
Why

The course is concept driven because it applies economic logic to legal institutions and policy tradeoffs across several domains.

Prerequisites

2/5
Why

The existing course notes mainly point back to introductory microeconomic reasoning, not to a long technical prerequisite chain.

Reading

3/5
Why

A law-and-policy elective often leans on conceptual reading and case-style examples, but no public Rutgers syllabus was available to verify the actual load.

What students tend to say

Public discussion is thin and mostly asks about difficulty or instructor-specific details, so current syllabus and section information matter more than old comments.

Instructor-specific questions dominate

Students tend to ask about the current professor and grading structure rather than stable course content.

Topic breakdown

A practical chapter-by-chapter view from foundations to applications.

4 modules

Module 1

Legal rules as incentives

Students examine how laws change behavior by changing costs, benefits, and risks.

incentiveslegal ruleseconomic consequences

Basic concept overview

Law changes incentives

Economic analysis asks how people and firms respond to legal rules.

Efficiency is not the only value

Distribution, fairness, and rights can complicate simple cost-benefit stories.

Applications are wide-ranging

The same tools can analyze contracts, crime, pollution, and discrimination.

Things to watch for

Reducing every legal issue to money

Separate efficiency analysis from ethical and distributional questions.

Forgetting prerequisites

Review microeconomic reasoning from introductory economics.

Memorizing cases without incentives

Explain the behavioral mechanism each rule creates.

Fall 2026 sections

0 open · College Avenue

SectionStatusInstructorMeetingCampus
0111749ClosedGILGENBACHMonday 5:40 PM-7:00 PM at ABW 1170; Wednesday 5:40 PM-7:00 PM at ABW 1170ABW 1170College Avenue
cachedSource: Checked-in Rutgers Schedule of Classes snapshotsUpdated when term datasets are refreshedMay be stale

SIRS teaching signals

Historical student surveys

Teaching

4.17

Course quality

4.19

Response rate

31.8%

Coverage

33 offerings · 2014–2025

InstructorOfferingsTeachingQuality
Gilgenbach, Ruth124.384.37
Abere, Andrew74.004.03
Gilgenbach Ruth54.244.28
Warmingham Dale44.084.25
Warmingham, Dale24.004.05
Abere Andrew23.703.50

Course stats

Catalog and planning context

Credits

3

Current campuses

College Avenue

Current availability

0 open of 1

Catalog terms

Fall, Spring

Core codes

SOEHS

Loaded terms

4

Prerequisites

((01:220:102 or 11:373:121) and (01:220:103))<em> OR </em> ((01:220:102 or 11:373:121) and (11:373:122))

Degree requirement lists

No direct degree-list membership appears in the checked-in requirement index.

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