A persistent theme in the literature on property rights suggests that perfect state protection of private property rights would provide owners with an optimal incentive to invest in their assets. In this Essay, we challenge this view. Specifically, we argue that in many instances, perfect state...

This paper provides an empirical assessment of enforcement of environmental law in the Flemish Region. Data are used from the environmental inspectorate over a period of 20 years showing how many violations took place, how these violations were handled by the environmental inspectorate and how...

The burden of proof is a central feature of adjudication, and analogues exist in many other settings. It constitutes an important but largely unappreciated policy instrument that interacts with the level of enforcement effort and magnitude of sanctions in controlling harmful activity. Models are...

We study antitrust enforcement in which the fine must obey four legal principles: punishments should fit the crime, proportionality, bankruptcy considerations, and minimum fines. We integrate these legal principles into an infinitely-repeated oligopoly model, where bankruptcy considerations...

The decisions of the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF) during the 2001 term reflect two intriguing trends. This article analyzes both trends in detail. First, the CAAF indicated a willingness to expand the government's ability to characterize conduct as criminal by broadening the...

Parties often exchange promises of future performance with one another. Legal systems frame and regulate contracts involving the exchange of bilateral promises of future performance differently from one another. Two conceptual and practical questions often arise in these bilateral situations....

It is undeniable facts that many maids whom have been abused sexually, physically, mentally, and psychologically by their employers or employer’s family or relative. Therefore, this study examines how Shari’ah punishment can be applied as a deterrent punishment and lesson to others. It is...

More than two-thirds of the unauthorized immigrant population - roughly eight million out of 11.2 million - is in our nation’s workforce, and growing evidence suggests that unauthorized workers are more likely than their authorized counterparts to experience workplace-related violations....

We analyze corruption in law enforcement: the payment of bribes to enforcement agents, threats to frame innocent individuals in order to extort money from them, and the actual framing of innocent individuals. Bribery, extortion, and framing reduce deterrence and are thus worth discouraging....

Why do successful constitutions have the attributes characteristically associated with the rule of law? Why do constitutions involve public reasoning? And, how is such a system sustained as an equilibrium? In this paper, we adapt the framework in our previous work on “what is law?” to the...