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This paper analyzes two books recently published in France. Although they following different methods, both books deal with the problem of the foundations and basic concepts of law and economic law, including ownership, regulation, individualism, utility, and power. The authors (both sociologists) detail the benefits lawyers and economists may draw from the work of Jeremy Bentham's English school of “utilitarianism,” to whom the book by Christian Laval, entitled “Economic Man ( L'homme Economique) is dedicated, as well as the extraordinary intellectual resources and inventions found in the work of Spinoza (“Spinoza and the Social Sciences – Spinoza et les Sciences Sociales – edited by Yves Citton and Frederic Lordon, a collection of studies dedicated to the Spinoza's ”modernity”). Bentham proposes an original and rather materialistic reading of the law by taking into account the actors themselves, their powers, and their calculations according to their own specific purposes. Bentham also proclaims “common utility” to be the supreme aim of humankind. Spinoza himself does not omit the part individuals play in the social system. However, his approach is quite different in that the keyword of his philosophy and political representation is “endeavor” ( conatus), which is the enemy of all mediations, including the state and the law. In fact, Spinoza depicts power, including all frameworks for power, exactly as they are, that is, as pure strength, without artifice. All these propositions will be of particular interest to specialists in economic law because of all the transpositions they suggest.