Even before coming here, Professor Manne, confident of the power of economic analysis, wrote a series of articles outlining and "naming" ideas that truly transformed the study of corporate law in ways that we often take for granted today — e.g., "the market for corporate control" (just one example). At this law school, Manne created his Law and Economics Center, staffed it strongly, and promoted it widely, founding a revolutionary base for institutionalizing "law and economics" as an organizing discipline to be introduced into both the study and practice of law — for academics and their students, but also for judges, administrators, and lawyers generally. Henry Manne brought in truly accomplished microeconomists on a regular basis, and a great group of faculty learned, as a result, howe to work with (sometimes) and to argue against (often too) the ideas these guests brilliantly outlined.
Henry Manne's seminars were models of never-ending contention — never clearing markets of ideas. If Chicago was one ground zero back then, we were another.
Professor Manne thrived in whilrlwinds, created them when he needed them, not surprisingly moved around a lot over the course of his career — St. Louis, Wisconsin, Rochester, Miami, Emory, and finally, as dean, George Mason. He was last here a few years ago, for Fred McChesney's installation in the de la Cruz/Mentschikoff chair. Fred, it is easy to argue, was the Law and Economics Center's greatest student (J.D. '78) and Henry was greatly proud. But he was also much amused at the idea of Fred's chair as named partly for Soia Mentschikoff. As dean, she had brought Manne to Miami. Arguably, it was their dialectic that spun the Center: two hurricanes, critically, inevitably complexly close together.
Professor Henry Manne taught at Miami Law from 1974 to the early 1980s. He was considered a founder of the law and economics discipline, and upon his death was Dean Emeritus and University Professor Emeritus at the George Mason University School of Law. He also taught at Emory University, University of Rochester, St. Louis University and the University of Wisconsin.
