Bruce L. Benson (born March 18, 1949) is an American academic economist who is recognized as an authority on

law and economics Law and economics, or economic analysis of law, is the application of microeconomic theory to the analysis of law, which emerged primarily from scholars of the Chicago school of economics. Economic concepts are used to explain the effects of laws ...

and a major exponent of

anarcho-capitalist Anarcho-capitalism (or, colloquially, ancap) is an anti-statist, libertarian, and anti-political philosophy and economic theory that seeks to abolish centralized states in favor of stateless societies with systems of private property enforce ...

legal theory Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

. He is

chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...

of the department of economics, DeVoe L. Moore Professor, distinguished research professor and courtesy professor of law at

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

and the recipient of the 2006 Adam Smith Award, the highest honor bestowed by the

Association of Private Enterprise Education The Association of Private Enterprise Education is a nonprofit organization. It was founded by a philanthropic donation from Herman Lay, co-founder of Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo.

. He is a senior fellow at the

Independent Institute The Independent Institute is an American libertarian think tank based in Oakland, California. Founded in 1986 by David J. Theroux, the institute focuses on political, social, economic, legal, environmental, and foreign policy issues. It has more ...

and has recently been a Fulbright Senior Specialist in the Czech Republic, visiting professor at the university de Paris Pantheonon Assas, a Property-and-Environment-Research-Center Julian Simon Fellow, and visiting research fellow at the

American Institute for Economic Research The American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) is a libertarian think tank located in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1933 by Edward C. Harwood, an economist and investment advisor. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. History ...

Education

Benson received his Ph.D. from

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

in 1978.

Publications

Benson is the author of four books, co-editor of another, author of over 125 peer-reviewed academic articles, author of over 65 chapters in edited books and has presented numerous scholarly papers. He has written some of the leading

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

law and economics perspectives on

regulation Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. For ...

criminalization Criminalization or criminalisation, in criminology, is "the process by which behaviors and individuals are transformed into crime and criminals". Previously legal acts may be transformed into crimes by legislation or judicial decision. However, ...

commercial law Commercial law, also known as mercantile law or trade law, is the body of law that applies to the rights, relations, and conduct of persons and business engaged in commerce, merchandising, trade, and sales. It is often considered to be a branc ...

, and

Native American law Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and enterta ...

(see also:

private law Private law is that part of a civil law legal system which is part of the ''jus commune'' that involves relationships between individuals, such as the law of contracts and torts (as it is called in the common law), and the law of obligations ( ...

polycentric law Polycentric law is a theoretical legal structure in which "providers" of legal systems compete or overlap in a given jurisdiction, as opposed to monopolistic statutory law according to which there is a sole provider of law for each jurisdiction. D ...

). His books include: * ''American Antitrust Law in Theory and in Practice'' (with Melvin L. Greenhut), Aldershot, England: Avebury, 1989, 265 plus xiii pages. * '' The Enterprise of Law: Justice Without the State'', San Francisco: Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, 1990, 397 plus viii pages (Award: 1991 Honorable-Mention Runner-up (among 5 finalists), Free Press Association "H. L. Mencken National Book Award."). * ''The Economic Anatomy of a Drug War: Criminal Justice in the Commons'' (with David W. Rasmussen), Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1994, 265 plus viii pages. * '' To Serve and Protect: Privatization and Community in Criminal Justice'', New York: New York University Press, 1998, 372 plus xxvii pages; with a foreword by Marvin E. Wolfgang, director, Center for Studies in Criminology, University of Pennsylvania. Edited Series: "Political Economy of the Austrian School" series, Mario Rizzo, general editor (Award: The Atlas Economic Research Foundation's 2000 Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award recognizing "the institute that publishes a book ... in 1998 or 1999 that, in the opinion of the judges, made the greatest contribution to public understanding of the free economy" (book was written for the Independent Institute)). * ''Justicia Sin Estado'' (Madrid: Unión Editorial, 2000) (Spanish translation of The Enterprise of Law: Justice Without the State, translated into Spanish by José Ignacio del Castillo and Jesús Gomez) * ''Self Determination: The Other Path for Native Americans'', an edited volume (co-edited with Terry Anderson and Tom Flannagan), Stanford University Press, 2006, 332 plus xv pages.

Notes and references

External links

Florida State University faculty profile

Bruce L. Benson archive at The Independent Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benson, Bruce L. 1949 births Living people American anarcho-capitalists American libertarians Austrian School economists Florida State University faculty Mises Institute people Libertarian economists Philosophers of law People from Havre, Montana Economists from Montana 21st-century American economists