Law and Economics - the field of economic analysis of law or the microeconomic analysis of efficiency in particular - has arguably emerged as one of the influential theories of jurisprudence since the 1960's. The discipline has been steadily making inroads into India as scholars and policy-makers note how comparative law lends itself to comparative economic analysis of law. While the language and reasoning of economic analysis started appearing in the Indian courts only recently, the discipline can provide relevant and deeper insights to a number of contemporary Indian legal issues.
With an aim to encourage the interdisciplinary study of law and economics among Indian scholars and give them a platform to discuss their research with national and international peer group and practicing professionals, the Consortium of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Gujarat National Law University, and Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur conceived to organize a series of annual conferences on Law and Economics.
In 2015, together with IIM - Ahmedabad and IIT - Kanpur, GNLU hosted and organised the first edition of the International Conference on Law & Economics, bringing together scholars in the field from across India and a number of other countries for deliberation on various contemporary legal issues and research addressing these issues. The 2016 edition of the Conference was held at IIT - Kanpur, and IIM Ahmedabad, the premier business school in the country shall host the third edition of the conference on 18th and 19th of November 2017 at the IIM Campus in Ahmedabad.
The past conferences attracted several leading international and national experts and academicians in the field of law and economics. Many lawmakers, bureaucrats and senior officials representing relevant regulatory and statutory bodies, and professionals and firms working in the area also attended the conference. In line with the consortium's commitment to academic outreach in the student community, many undergraduate and postgraduate students from several universities in the country also participated enthusiastically in the past conferences.