Law and economics or economic analysis of law is the application of economic methods to analysis of law. Economic concepts are used to explain the effects of laws, to assess which legal rules are economically efficient, and to predict which legal rules will be promulgated.

As used by lawyers and legal scholars, the phrase "law and economics" refers to the application of the methods of economics to legal problems. Because of the overlap between legal systems and political systems, some of the issues in law and economics are also raised in political economy, constitutional economics and political science. Most formal academic work done in law and economics is broadly within the Neoclassical tradition.^{[citation needed]}

Approaches to the same issues from Marxist and critical theory/Frankfurt School perspectives usually do not identify themselves as "law and economics". For example, research by members of the critical legal studies movement and the sociology of law considers many of the same fundamental issues as does work labeled "law and economics".

Americans with disabilities comprise one of the largest minority groups in the United States. According to the Disability Status: 2000 - Census 2000 Brief approximately 20% of Americans have one or more diagnosed psychological or physical disability:

Census 2000 counted 49.7 million people with some type of long lasting condition or disability. They represented 19.3 percent of the 257.2 million people who were aged 5 and older in the civilian non-institutionalized population -- or nearly one person in five..."

This percentage varies depending on how disabilities are defined. According to Census Brief 97-5, "About 1 in 5 Americans have some kind of disability, and 1 in 10 have a severe disability."

Although Americans live in the only industrialized nation without universal healthcare^{[citation needed]}, those with disabilities can generally find adequate levels of subsidized support from a variety of sources, generally at the regional level. While most rural areas — especially in the Great Plains region — have little or no government-organized medical support infrastructure for the permanently disabled indigent population, most major urban centers have healthcare systems. One of the largest developed systems is the Harris County Mental Health and Retardation Authority (MHMRA).^{[citation needed]} Started in 1992 as a spinoff of the local University of Texas Health Science Center, MHMRA proved to be a success as it focused on handling complex Medicare and Medicaid paperwork for patients, in a system which greatly cut down on administration costs and sped the approval process.