George Mason University is internationally recognized as a leading center of research in law and economics, constitutional political economy, and public choice theory. GMU has a distinguished record in the field of law and economics, being the academic home of 3 out of 10 of the scholars who have been recognized as "founding fathers" of law and economics (Palgrave, 1998) and two Nobel Prize economists: James M. Buchanan in 1986 and Vernon L. Smith in 2002.

During the past 15 years, George Mason University School of Law has attracted a distinctive, interdisciplinary faculty, many of whom hold doctorates in economics, philosophy, political science, or related fields. Almost all members of the faculty apply the tools of economics or other social sciences to legal problems, and this intellectual orientation pervades the curriculum. Our faculty is among the most prolific in the nation in these fields of research and our interdisciplinary Program in Law and Economics is probably the most advanced in the profession.

George Mason ranks among the top 10 in the nation for faculty quality in law and economics in the 2003-2004 New Educational Quality Ranking of U.S. Law Schools (EQR). Our interdisciplinary curriculum is one of the most innovative in the country. Its emphasis on the legal application of economic methods, intellectual property, and technology law has made George Mason the youngest school to enter the First Tier in the U.S. News & World Report ranking of law schools. In addition, the law school in collaboration with the University of Chicago Press publishes the Supreme Court Economic Review (SCER) which brings together the perspectives of world-class legal scholars and economists on the work of the United States Supreme Court. It is essential reading for legal scholars, economists, policy makers, and scholars specializing in law and economics.

Since 1987 the Law & Economics Center (LEC) has been an integral part of George Mason University School of Law. The LEC has trained more than 600 judges, including two current members of the Supreme Court, in law and economics and related disciplines and is one of the most successful educational programs of its kind.

In 2001, the Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science (ICES), moved to George Mason. Nobel Prize economist Vernon L. Smith and two other scholars in this group hold joint positions with the School of Law. These economists are founders and leaders of the growing area of experimental economics. In 2004, the Center for the Study of Neuroeconomics (CSN) was established as a research center and laboratory for the experimental study of how emergent mental computations in the brain interact with the emergent computations of institutions to produce legal, political, and economic order.

The School of Law is closely affiliated with several other GMU research centers that focus on the study of economics, regulation, public choice, liberty, and free markets: the James M. Buchanan Center, the Center for Study of Public Choice, the Institute for Humane Studies, and the Mercatus Center.

During recent years these centers have brought a large number of distinguished speakers to George Mason University, with the inclusion of virtually every star in the law and economics firmament field, Richard A. Posner, Robert D. Cooter, Cass Sunstein, Roberta Romano, Steven Shavell, Harold Demsetz, Oliver E. Williamson, Guido Calabresi, Henry G. Manne, Vernon L. Smith, Gordon Tullock, William A. Fischel, Jonathan Macey, Gerrit De Geest, Randy Barnett, William M. Landes, Gary Becker, Hans-Bernd Schaefer, James M. Buchanan, and Richard A. Epstein.

The Law School

George Mason is one of the most innovative law schools in the country. Its emphasis on IP, on technology law, on the legal application of economic tools and methods, and on the intensive development of legal research and writing skills have made George Mason the youngest school to enter the First Tier in the influential U.S. News & World Report ranking of law schools. In addition, George Mason was ranked in the top 10 in the nation for faculty quality in law and economics in University of Texas Professor Brian Leiter's recent study.

The law school is located in Arlington, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, DC.  This location gives students access to year-round employment opportunities in both Washington, DC, and Northern Virginia (the Internet capital of the world), allows the law school to maintain one of the best adjunct faculties in the country, and provides everyone at the law school with a diversity of cultural and social opportunities.