Judge Richard A. Posner is the leading and most creative exponent of “the economic analysis of law”—an extremely influential movement in American jurisprudence and law teaching. As he articulates and defends this pattern of analysis, it is seen as having both a descriptive and a normative dimension. As a descriptive theory, the economic analysis of law maintains that the principle of wealth maximization (goods and services are to be in the hands of those willing to pay the most for them) has in fact—surface language often to the contrary—guided a substantial amount of common law adjudication. As a normative theory, the economic analysis of law maintains that the principle of wealth maximization ought to guide adjudication—that judges, whenever possible, should resolve common law cases in such a way that wealth is maximized. Wealth maximization is the expected result when free market forces are operative, and thus judges should attempt to “mimic the market” whenever possible.