What is the use of static constructors?

No you can't overload it; a static constructor is useful for initializing any static fields associated with a type (or any other per-type operations) - useful in particular for reading required configuration data into readonly fields, etc.

It is run automatically by the runtime the first time it is needed (the exact rules there are complicated (see "beforefieldinit"), and changed subtly between CLR2 and CLR4). Unless you abuse reflection, it is guaranteed to run at most once (even if two threads arrive at the same time).

From Static Constructors (C# Programming Guide):

A static constructor is used to initialize any static data, or to perform a particular action that needs performed once only. It is called automatically before the first instance is created or any static members are referenced.

Static constructors have the following properties:

• A static constructor does not take access modifiers or have parameters.

• A static constructor is called automatically to initialize the class before the first instance is created or any static members are referenced.

• A static constructor cannot be called directly.

• The user has no control on when the static constructor is executed in the program.

• A typical use of static constructors is when the class is using a log file and the constructor is used to write entries to this file.

• Static constructors are also useful when creating wrapper classes for unmanaged code, when the constructor can call the LoadLibrary method.

Static constructors are also very useful when you have static fields that rely upon each other such that the order of initialization is important. If you run your code through a formatter/beautifier that changes the order of the fields then you may find yourself with null values where you didn't expect them.

Example: Suppose we had this class:

class ScopeMonitor
{
    static string urlFragment = "foo/bar";
    static string firstPart= "http://www.example.com/";
    static string fullUrl= firstPart + urlFragment;
}

When you access fullUr, it will be "http://www.example.com/foo/bar".

Months later you're cleaning up your code and alphabetize the fields (let's say they're part of a much larger list, so you don't notice the problem). You have:

class ScopeMonitor
{
    static string firstPart= "http://www.example.com/";
    static string fullUrl= firstPart + urlFragment;
    static string urlFragment = "foo/bar";
}

Your fullUrl value is now just "http://www.example.com/" since urlFragment hadn't been initialized at the time fullUrl was being set. Not good. So, you add a static constructor to take care of the initialization:

class ScopeMonitor
{
    static string firstPart= "http://www.example.com/";
    static string fullUrl;
    static string urlFragment = "foo/bar";

    static ScopeMonitor()
    {
        fullUrl= firstPart + urlFragment;

    }
}

Now, no matter what order you have the fields, the initialization will always be correct.