Academic

Svatikova on Economic Criteria for Criminalization

By Lawrence Solum

Katarina Svatikova (Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Rotterdam Institute of Law and Economics) has posted Economic Criteria for Criminalization: Why Do We Need the Criminal Law? on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

The main purpose of this paper is to identify criteria, using a law and economics approach, demarcating the choice for using criminal law as opposed to other legal remedies, such as administrative or tort law. In other words, it tries to find out why criminal law should be used at all and what the comparative advantages of criminal law are compared to the legal alternatives. By focusing not only on the distinction between tort and crime, but also on the use of criminal law vis-ý-vis administrative law, this paper could provide some contributing remarks. Based upon the analysis in this paper, it is argued that criminalization of an act is/should be seen in areas where: (1) harm is large and/or immaterial and/or diffuse and/or remote; (2) conviction can generate a cost-effective stigma; (3) the probability of detection is low; and/or (4) the regulator can use criminal law as a socialization mechanism. Under these circumstances, criminal law seems to be the instrument that internalizes the social cost of harms.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on June 25, 2008 (boomark / email).