This paper starts by reviewing empirical research that threatens law and economics' initial success. This research has demonstrated that the functioning of the law cannot be well understood based on the assumption of the rational actor and that policies which are based on this assumption are...

As co-editor, I dedicate this special issue to Wibo van Rossum, who sadly passed away during the making of it. Wibo initiated this special issue and, despite his grave illness, was determined to help accomplish it. The idea of editing this special issue originated from the annual conference of...

In his inaugural lecture, Peter Mascini takes issue with the goal of scientific purity in the behavioral study of the law, conceived as the deliberate choice to postulate a limited number of universally applicable behavioral principles. The guiding principle of behavioral sociology is that law...

By using a longitudinal bi-annual dataset (2012–2018) from the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (Cepej) for 22 EU countries, this study tests four hypotheses that have been derived from rational choice theory at individual and aggregated level. The positive associations...

For over a century, scholars and practitioners have assumed rehabilitation stands as the progressive opposite of repression. Elaborating on previous warnings and anomalous findings, a representative survey of the Dutch population (N = 1,892) points out that this received view is flawed. When...

Disability policy in European countries is displaying a shift towards social investment: increasing human capital and access to the labour market. The reasoning that underlies this transition is that disabled persons would benefit from mainstream employment, but are impeded in traditional policy...