Judge Posner's Blog

Those of us who study law should all take interest in this site, the weblog of Richard Posner and Gary Becker.

I haven't read all that many of Posner's law review articles and only a handful of his opinions, but I do know that he's all about some law and economics (he sorta started that field). I didn't realize that he's a little kooky about it, though. His first post discusses "Preventive War."

But what if the danger of attack is remote rather than imminent? Should imminence be an absolute condition of going to war, and preventive war thus be deemed always and everywhere wrong? Analytically, the answer is no. A rational decision to go to war should be based on a comparison of the costs and benefits (in the largest sense of these terms) to the nation.

"The nation" I guess means the U.S (or whichever nation happens to be doing the attacking) and not the nation that is being attacked. It seems like someone's interests are being left out of the equation.

Update: Orin Kerr beat me to the punch.