The economic part of the course focuses on the formation and evolution of the political economy of capitalism. This approach is partitioned in three parts: (a) capitalism as a system oriented towards the creation of abstract wealth through accumulation (the classical approach); (b) interaction based on methodological individualism and thus on the identification of economic behavior and economic relations with markets - itself this second part is subjected to a division in two strands: (ba) the General Equilibrium strand and (bb) the Marshallian strand; (c) monetary relations as expressing abstract wealth without however entailing systemic accumulation nor the existence of markets for a large class of activities (Keynes). The course then shows how attempts to develop consistent theoretic narratives in economics ended up relying on such special cases as to make it impossible for those narratives to function as parables for actual systems, while the narrative question is deeply intertwined with policy debates.

The legal part of the course focuses on the historical development and current status of the most important legal institutions that have undergirded the capitalist system (generally from a comparative US and EU viewpoint), especially the following:

• The incorporation process (public policies behind facilitating the use of the corporate form to carry out business, both for profit and not-for-profit, as a key vehicle driving a dynamic society): a look at the Corporation as a nexus of contracts
• Fiduciary duties of corporate management (directors, executive officers, et al.)
• Capital formation: private sources (venture capital, private equity, etc.)
• Capital formation: public (IPOs)
• The disclosure-driven Securities law system governing capital formation generally (esp. the extensive ongoing disclosure and corporate governance requirements applicable to public companies in both the US and the EU)
• Enforcement of individual rights vis-à-vis the corporation: private enforcement by investors and consumers and the major impact this has on the way companies develop and market (and insure) products and services, as well as the way they raise capital (direct and derivative shareholders' lawsuits, piercing the corporate veil, product liability suits, the class action as a key tool in the US, status of such in EU countries)
• Enforcement: public enforcement for corporate fraud, insider trading, securities law, corporate governance, corrupt practices rules violations, etc., especially through use of the "three-pronged" approach- criminal charges, civil lawsuits by authorities, and administrative proceedings. A comparison of the US (SEC/Dept of Justice) approach will be made with the systems in Europe, which are rapidly developing.
• The process of corporate, securities and business law convergence.
• Corporate Social Responsibility from a legal standpoint
• Introduction to commercial contracts and the development of contracts laws in both the Anglo-American common law and the Continental civil law worlds: the Rule of Law as it permits commercial relations to occur.