Positive economic theories of the law nearly by definition explain legal change. If change is not treated as continuous rather than as a unique event, and the methodology is economics, researchers can hardly avoid dwelling in the field of “evolutionary law and economics” (henceforth “ELE”). This research area has been fertilized substantially from evolutionary approaches in economics but has also developed its own evolutionary models. Some of them have developed to such large research fields that they deserve
their own chapters in this handbook, while others overlap with various chapters. This chapter provides a survey of the central arguments of ELE with its main emphases, striking a balance between comprehensiveness and avoidance of duplicating other chapters.