An Introduction to The Pursuit of Justice

Edward Lopez

Chapter Chapter 1 in The Pursuit of Justice, 2010, pp 1-17 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This book presents new research in the study of legal systems as they perform in practice. All the chapters in this volume recognize that judges, lawyers, juries, police, and forensic and other experts, all respond to incentives. In short, the players of t he legal game a re “ordinar y persons much like the rest of us.” Thus if we want to understand why the legal system sometimes fails to perform up to our ideals and expectations we must analyze the incentives available to actors in the legal arena and the institutions that set the “rules of the game.” Of course, if we want to reform the legal system, we must change the rules of the game so that the individual incentives of judges, lawyers, juries, and other legal actors motivate them to act in the larger social interest. The eleven chapters that follow apply this framework to wrongful convictions, frivolous lawsuits, government corruption, takings, criminal sentencing, regulation of the legal services market, and many other issues.

Keywords: Legal System; Public Choice; Legal Rule; Legal Institution; Collective Action Problem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-10949-0_1

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DOI: 10.1057/9780230109490_1

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