Two aspects distinguished the CIRL from other economic circles that had sprung up in the interwar period. First, it recruited equally among academic economists (Louis Baudin, Gaëtan Pirou, Charles Rist, etc.) and important corporate managers (Auguste Detoeuf, Louis Marlio, Ernest Mercier, etc.). These two groups had been competing throughout the 1930s to establish what should be sanctioned as the legitimate approach to economic problems. To the extent that it gave prominence to legal issues, neoliberalism could convince both economists, who at that time were trained and taught in law faculties, and managers, who promoted industrial rationalization and the building of a legal order in which reasonable planning would be possible.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 282