When should laws be enforced by private actors and when should society rely on law enforcement by public authorities? This question has been analyzed in great detail in law & economics scholarship. This article surveys the literature and outlines a framework of criteria for deciding whether...

A defendant who admits to having committed an offense may nevertheless be acquitted if he can provide a legally cognizable justification or excuse for his actions by raising an affirmative defense. This article explains how affirmative defenses generate social benefits in the form of avoided...

Conventional models of judicial behavior assume that, barring extraordinary circumstances, lower courts will comply with changes in governing law. The few studies that have examined judicial compliance with higher court decisions have concluded that judges quickly adopt even controversial new...

Overcriminalization takes many forms and impacts the American criminal justice system in varying ways. This article focuses on a select portion of this phenomenon by examining two types of overcriminalization prevalent in white collar criminal law. The first type of over criminalization...

The "trial penalty" is a concept widely accepted by all the major actors in the criminal justice system: defendants, prosecutors, defense attorneys, court employees, and judges. The notion is that defendants receive longer sentences at trial than they would have through plea bargain, often...

The legal standard of proof in any criminal trial is reasonable doubt, but economic models argue for a variable standard. Two economic arguments are tested with data on federal trials over the last decade. First, a trier of fact should respond to a more serious charge with a higher burden of...

This is a survey of the field of economic analysis of law, focusing on the work of economists. The survey covers the three central areas of civil law - liability for accidents (tort law), property law, and contracts - as well as the litigation process and public enforcement of law

In this second edition of The Economics of Law, an introduction to, and overview of, the economic analysis of law is provided. The text covers the history of the economics of law, the difference between economic and legal reasoning, basic economic concepts, and application of economics to tort...

This paper presents an empirical analysis of criminal antitrust prosecutions undertaken by the Department of Justice during the period 1955-1993. The authors report data on the number of criminal cases, the type of offense alleged, whether the defendants were individuals or firms, the position...

This Article evaluates two different economic models of criminal law as applied to the enforcement of antitrust laws. The author argues that economic models which propose antitrust punishment be limited to fines and then to fines that are levied against only business entities, are deficient...