TALLAHASSEE - Florida State University College of Law’s Shawn Bayern, the Larry and Joyce Beltz Professor of Torts, has published a new casebook in the area of business law.

Closely Held Organizations (Carolina Academic Press 2014) examines the law of closely held businesses. Using cases, statutes, and original informational notes and commentary, the book covers agency law, partnership law, the law of close corporations, and the law of limited liability companies.

“The book adopts a functionalist approach to law rather than a formalistic one,” said Bayern. “Of course, it covers the legal doctrine, but it also shows the logic behind the doctrine and equips students to evaluate difficult cases. It relies heavily on economic understanding, but not exclusively so – and it avoids being driven by the ideologies, rather than the more neutral descriptive assessments, of the legal economists.”

Bayern is one of many faculty members that form the basis of Florida State’s burgeoning business and tax law program. His research focuses on common-law issues, primarily in contracts, torts, and corporate law. He has recently written articles criticizing formalism and economic simplifications of the law. At Berkeley Law School, Bayern was the editor-in-chief of the California Law Review. Before joining Florida State, he was a visiting assistant professor at Duke Law School. He has also served as a law clerk for the Honorable Harris Hartz of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit