The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Legal Entrepreneurship and Institutional Change

The notion of entrepreneurship developed by Israel Kirzner has applications far beyond the market process. Legal entrepreneurs are lawyers, activists, and other participants in the legal process who are alert to opportunities to alter legal rules, thereby benefiting themselves or their clients. Legal entrepreneurship creates a dynamic that can generate virtually continuous change in the structure of legal rights and duties. On the one hand, the notion of legal entrepreneurship is a testament to the value of Kirzners project. But on the other, it creates a serious problem for Kirzners conception of welfare economics, which depends on the existence of a stable background of property rights. If the notion of entrepreneurship implies continual change in property rights, then the power of Kirznerian welfare economics is substantially curtailed.La notion desprit dentreprise développée par Israel Kirzner a des applications qui vont bien au-delà du processus de marché. Les entrepreneurs juridiques sont les avocats, les activistes et autres participants au processus juridique qui ont conscience des opportunités de transformer les règles de droit, que ce soit pour leur propre bénéfice ou pour celui de leurs clients. Lentrepreneuriat juridique crée une dynamique qui peut générer des changements presque continus dans la structure des droits légaux et des devoirs. Dune part, la notion dentrepreneuriat juridique est un témoignage de la valeur du projet de Kirzner. Mais dautre part, il crée un sérieux problème quant à sa conception de léconomie du bien-être de Kirzner qui repose sur lexistence dune structure stable de droits de propriété. Si la notion desprit dentreprise implique un changement continuel dans les droits de propriété, alors la portée de léconomie du bienêtre de Kirzner est substantiellement réduite.