TALLAHASSEE—Robert Cooter, a University of California law professor and pioneer in the field of law and economics, will deliver the 2005 Ladd Lecture at the College of Law on January 13. The lecture, which is open to the public, is an annual event that recognizes Mason Ladd, the law school’s founding dean. It will begin at 3:30 p.m. in Room 101, B.K. Roberts Hall. A reception will follow in R103. 

Cooter’s lecture, “Law, Innovation, and the Poverty of Nations,” explains how the legal framework facilitates innovation that lifts nations out of poverty, or inhibits innovation and keeps nations poor. The lecture, which will be published in Florida State University Law Review, also is the topic of a forthcoming book. 

Cooter is the Herman F. Selvin Professor of Law and the director of the Program in Business, Law and Economics at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He is one of the founders of the American Law and Economics Association and served from 1994 to 1995 as its president. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999. 

“Professor Cooter is a pioneering figure in the economic analysis of law—having published extensively in both fields of law and economics—and is a highly sought-after public speaker,” says Jim Rossi, the Harry M. Walborsky Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the College of Law. “It is now commonplace for lawyers to look to economics to describe or explain doctrines of private law. By using economic analysis to address social norms and make new insights about public legal institutions, Professor Cooter’s scholarship sits at the cutting-edge of interdisciplinary work done today in American law schools.” 

Cooter began teaching in the Department of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1975 and joined the Boalt Hall law faculty in 1980. He has been a visiting member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and a recipient of various awards and fellowships, including Guggenheim, the Jack N. Pritzker Visiting Research Professorship at Northwestern Law School, and, most recently, the Max Planck Research Prize. He was an Olin visiting professor at the University of Virginia Law School and lectured at the University of Cologne (Germany) in 1989. After serving as coeditor of International Review of Law and Economics for more than a decade, he is founding a new journal with the European Law and Economics Association titled The Review of Law and Economics. Cooter has published a wide variety of articles on private law, constitutional law and economics, and law and economic development. Recent publications include the fourth edition of the leading textbook Law and Economics (with Ulen, 2003), also translated into Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. He has also authored The Strategic Constitution (Princeton University Press 2000), which applies economic analysis to fundamental public law issues at the core of constitutional ordering. 

He earned his Ph.D. in 1975 from Harvard University, a master’s degree from Oxford University in 1969 and a bachelor of arts degree in 1967 from Swarthmore College. 

“Professor Cooter’s appearance at Florida State reflects the law school’s initiative to strengthen its program in business and economics,” said Don Weidner, College of Law dean.