This article surveys the theory of the public enforcement of law -- the use of public agents (inspectors, tax auditors …, police, prosecutors) to detect and to sanction violators of legal rules. We first present the basic elements of the theory … examine a variety of extensions of the central theory, concerning accidental harms, costs of imposing fines, errors, general …

A central result in the economic theory of liability is that, if an injurer's liability equals the victim's loss, then …

This note reexamines the theory of optimal public enforcement when litigation costs are incurred if the defendant is …