Law and Economics is arguably the most influential and controversial scholarly and jurisprudential movement in the U.S. in recent decades. This chapter first presents the pre-1970 intellectual bedrock of the movement. It then analyses the ways in which the formative period of the movement in Chicago (1970–1985) shaped the particular interaction between law and economics that the movement embraced—namely economic analysis of legal rules. Next, it surveys the expansion of law and economics beyond Chicago, as it became more pluralistic and global, and the challenges to its coherence and viability in law schools. Lastly, it evaluates the prospects for more historical orientation, given internal challenges and external opportunities, such as the turn to empirical legal studies and the institutional turn in economics.