Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-grxwn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-20T22:00:15.107Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the optimal specificity of legal rules

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2007

VINCY FON  and
FRANCESCO PARISI
VINCY FON
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, George Washington University, Washington DC, 20052, USA. Email: [email protected]
FRANCESCO PARISI
Affiliation:
School of Law, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA and Department of Economics, University of Bologna, Italy. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Lawmakers can choose to craft laws with different levels of detail to guide judges in their decision-making process, incorporating rules or standards into the laws they write. The optimal degree of specificity of legal rules under different environmental conditions and the functionality of these rules or standards are the subjects of the present study. A basic model of optimal specificity of laws is presented, clarifying the relevance of legal obsolescence and volume of litigation in the optimal choice. We then consider the important influence of codification style, judges’ specialization, and complexity of reality on the optimal choice of legislative instrument. The implications of our results are then reexamined in light of the more complex institutional reality that characterizes contemporary legislative processes in various areas of the law.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , August 2007 , pp. 147 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © The JOIE Foundation 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aristotle, (350 BC), Nicomachean, Ethics, bk. V. §10, in Roger, Crisp (Ed. and Trans.), Nicomachean Ethics, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bentham, Jeremy 1776, ‘A Fragment on Government’, in Burns, J. H. and Hart, H. L. A. (eds), A Comment on the Commentaries and a Fragment on Government, London: University of London Althone Press.Google Scholar
Brunsson, Nils 1989, The Organization of Hypocrisy: Talk, Decisions, and Actions in Organizations, Chichester, New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Calabresi, Guido 1979, ‘Access to Justice and Substantive Law Reform: Legal Aid for the Lower Middle Class’, in Mauro, Cappelletti and Bryant, Garth (eds), Access to Justice, Vol III: Emerging Issues and Perspectives, Sijthoff and Noordhoff.Google Scholar
Dari-Mattiacci, Giuseppe and Bruno, Deffains 2005, ‘Uncertainty of Law and the Legal Process’, Amsterdam Center for Law and Economics Working Paper No. 2005-10, Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=869368Google Scholar
Easterbrook, Frank 1983, ‘Statutes’ Domains’, University of Chicago Law Review, 50: 533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehrlich, Isaac and Posner, Richard A. 1974, ‘An Economic Analysis of Legal Rulemaking’, Journal of Legal Studies, 3: 257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellinghaus, M. P. and Wright, E. W. 2005, ‘The Common Law of Contracts: Are Broad Pinciples Better Than Detailed Rules? An Empirical Investigation’, Texas Wesleyan Law Review, 11 (2): 399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fon, Vincy, and Francesco, Parisi 2003, ‘Litigation and the Evolution of Legal Remedies: A Dynamic Model’, Public Choice, 116 (3–4): 419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fon, Vincy, Francesco, Parisi, and Ben, Depoorter 2005, ‘Litigation, Judicial Path- Dependence, and Legal Change’, European Journal of Law and Economics, 20 (1): 43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hatzis, Aristides N. 2003, ‘Having the Cake and Eating It Too: Efficient Penalty Clauses in Common and Civil Contract Law’, International Review of Law and Economics, 22: 381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heiner, Ronald A. 1986, ‘Imperfect Decisions and the Law: On the Evolution of Legal Precedent and Rules’, Journal of Legal Studies, 15: 227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Héritier, Adrienne 1999, Policy-making and Diversity in Europe: Escaping Deadlock, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Immergut, Ellen M. 1992, Health Politics: Interests and Institutions in Western Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, Jason S. 1995, ‘Bargaining Under Rules versus Standards’, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 11: 256.Google Scholar
Kaplow, Louis 2000, ‘General Characteristics of Rules’, in Boudewijn, Bouckaert and Gerrit, De Geest (eds), Encyclopedia of Law and Economics, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Kaplow, Louis 1995, ‘A Model of the Optimal Complexity of Legal Rules’, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 11: 150.Google Scholar
Kaplow, Louis 1994, ‘The Value of Accuracy in Adjudication: An Economic Analysis’, Journal of Law and Economics, 37: 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplow, Louis 1992, ‘Rules versus Standards: An Economic Analysis’, Duke Law Journal, 42: 557.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, Gary et al. 1994, Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahoney, Paul and Chris, William Sanchirico 2005, ‘General and Specific Legal Rules’, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 161: 329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Majone, Giandomenico 2001, ‘Nonmajoritarian Institutions and the Limits of Democratic Governance: A Political Transaction-Cost Approach’, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 157: 57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattei, Ugo 1997, Comparative Law and Economics, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merryman, John 1969, The Civil Law Tradition: An Introduction to the Legal Systems of Western Europe and Latin America, Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Mueller, Dennis C. 1989, Public Choice II, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Parisi, Francesco, Vincy, Fon, and Nita, Ghei 2004, ‘The Value of Waiting in Lawmaking’, European Journal of Law and Economics, 18: 131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Posner, Richard A. 1989, ‘Legislation and Its Interpretation: A Primer’, Nebraska Law Review, 68: 432.Google Scholar
Rachlinski, Jeffrey J. 2000, ‘A Positive Psychological Theory of Judging in Hindsight’, in Sunstein, Cass R. (ed.), Behavioral Law and Economics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schäfer, Hans-Bernd 2006, ‘Rules Versus Standards in Developing Countries, Should Poor Countries Have a More Rule Based Legal System?’, Supreme Court Economic Review, 14.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Kathleen M. 1992, ‘The Justices of Rules and Standards’, Harvard Law Review, 106: 22.Google Scholar
Tsebelis, George 2002, Veto Players: How Political Institutions Work, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wegner, Gerhard 1997, ‘Economic Policy from an Evolutionary Perspective: A New Approach’, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 153: 485.Google Scholar