Law and Economics Training for Religious Leaders

In the past couple of days, there have been several posts here on the Mirror of Justice about markets and economics. This past week, Villanova hosted a conference on "Catholic Social Teaching on the Market, The State and the Law," while the University of St. Thomas simultaneously held a symposium on "Peace With Creation: Catholic Perspectives on Environmental Law." Issues of economics, markets, and the wisdom of reliance on government intervention to promote social justice were themes at both events.

In this regard, our readers may be interested in a post at the Volokh Conspiracy by Ilya Somin, with the above title, and which includes a cite to an earlier post by Rick Garnett here at MoJ. Ilya Somin's post includes the following:

* * * [I]t seems to me that many religious leaders who pronounce on public policy tend to reflexively favor increasing the role of government with little consideration of ways in which the interventions they favor might have perverse results, or ways in which social problems can be alleviated by reducing the role of the state instead of increasing it. Left-wing clergy seek to increase the role of government in fighting poverty, discrimination, and the like, while right-wing ones tend to focus their political energies on promoting "morals" regulation. This may well be painting with too broad a brush, and I'm sure there are religious leaders who are exceptions to this generalization. Nonetheless, it seems to me true as a general pattern (though I welcome correction by anyone who has compiled systematic data).

Learning basic law and economics won't necessarily turn religious leaders into libertarians. But it might give them a greater appreciation for markets, and engender at least a modest skepticism towards government. * * *