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...

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

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 capital trial is a costly affair. When a local government bears the expense of trial, it must raise funds or reallocate them from other sources. In Texas, among other states, the cost of trial is borne primarily at the county level. A panel of Texas county spending over the last decade,...

In advanced economies, the recent collapse of interest rates to the Zero Lower Bound (ZLB) has triggered a series of research questions on how to navigate the new zero-interest credit environment. Focusing on illegal markets, it is possible to explain why usury still remains widespread after the...

The recently-disclosed Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) has caused debate over whether warrants should be required for wiretaps targeting international terrorism. We examine traditional criminal wiretaps to determine whether the warrant requirement limits law enforcement. We find budget...

Corruption, while reflecting (and often reinforcing) broad, even systemic, institutional deficiencies within societies, also represents the amalgam of the choices, priorities, and actions of individual actors. This Article explores how cognitive and social conditions impact individuals’...

Axioms order preferences over endowments of essential liberties and power, but not all goods are modeled as non-satiated. Essential liberties are normal goods with respect to the budget constraint of power up to thresholds of satiation of power, after which essential liberties model as Giffen...

This article considers the possibility of simultaneously reducing crime, prison sentences, and the tax burden of financing the criminal justice system by introducing positive sanctions, which are benefits conferred to non-convicts. Specifically, it proposes a procedure wherein a part of the...