Observation:
Charles Fried, The Artificial Reason of the Law Or: What Lawyers Know, 60 TEXAS L. REV. 35 (1981).
 

Abstract:
In this Observation, Professor Fried notes that law is a distinct subject, a branch neither of economics nor of moral philosophy, and that it is in that subject that judges and lawyers are expert. Thus, it is the subject that law professors should teach and that law students should learn. He states that law is a relatively autonomous subject and that rights will be best and most reasonably respected if reasoning about them is done within this special discipline. Professor Fried illustrates his thesis by giving concrete examples, such as from principles of contract law. He posits that elaboration of principles of contract, tort, and restitution cannot be sensibly viewed as an exercise in economics or moral philosophy; rather this has been what Lord Coke called “the artificial Reason” of the law.