Practices of law enforcement and punishment in early modern Russia: A look of the law and economics

Grigory Kalyagin ()
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Grigory Kalyagin: Department of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University

No 74, Working Papers from Moscow State University, Faculty of Economics

Abstract: In this article, using the methods of law and economics, we study three practices of law enforcement and punishment of criminals, which in our time look very controversial and even ineffective, but which were quite widespread in early Modern Russia: 1) interpretation in court, alcohol intoxication as a mitigating circumstance; 2) the use of torture during interrogations not only of the accused, but even of witnesses; 3) replacing the cutting off of limbs, as a form of punishment for criminals, with branding and tearing out nostrils. The analysis shows that these institutional forms of law enforcement and punishment of criminals can be effective (from the point of view of the state) solutions in this area.

Keywords: law and economics; optimal enforcement; crime deterrence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K14 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2025-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis, nep-his and nep-law
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