The use of economics to criticize law is as old as economics itself. Adam Smith criticized laws that impeded trade in his book The Wealth of Nations. But the beginning of sustained application of economic theory to legal topics dates from the 1960s, and occurred in the US, where today it is probably the dominant form of legal critique. Prior to that date, the use of economics to criticize law was limited to commercial and market‐oriented laws. Thereafter, economic critique was progressively extended to all forms of law, including such apparently non‐market topics as family, criminal, and constitutional law.
"Economic Analysis of Law," Richard Nobles in The New Oxford Companion to Law