There are substantial economic gains to be made from countries getting ‘easy’ policy decisions right. Societies become impoverished when they do not accept the basic principles of freedom and competition.

Richard Epstein explains why the implications of getting the ‘difficult’ cases wrong are not serious, and that policymakers and their advisors would do well to concentrate on the ‘easy’ cases.

Richard Epstein is the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1972.