The purpose of this article is to discuss Posner's economic analysis of law and its place in the evolution of the law and economics movement. The importance of Posner's contribution is widely acknowledged in the literature. However, it is generally considered as simply another step in the evolution of the law and economics movement, rather than as an important departure from traditional law and economics. This reflects a larger issue in the history of law and economics: that most of the standard internalist treatments of the subject make no clear-cut difference between ''law and economics'' and ''the economic analysis of law.'' Thus, the terms ''law and economics'' and ''economic analysis of law'' are used interchangeably to describe any economic work dealing with law or legal rules published after 1960-that is, any contribution to ''new law and economics.'' Coase, for his part, receives a central place because of his path-breaking 1960 article, The Problem of the Social Cost. A turning point in the evolution of the field, it represents the ''origin [of ]. .. the modern law and economics movement'' (Hovenkamp 1990, p. 494; emphasis added) and marks the passage from an ''old''

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