Legal Origins

Edward L. Glaeser and Andrei Shleifer

The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2002, vol. 117, issue 4, 1193-1229

Abstract: A central requirement in the design of a legal system is the protection of law enforcers from coercion by litigants through either violence or bribes. The higher the risk of coercion, the greater the need for protection and control of law enforcers by the state. Such control, however, also makes law enforcers beholden to the state, and politicizes justice. This perspective explains why, starting in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the relatively more peaceful England developed trials by independent juries, while the less peaceful France relied on state-employed judges to resolve disputes. It may also explain many differences between common and civil law traditions with respect to both the structure of legal systems and the observed social and economic outcomes.

Date: 2002
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (264)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1162/003355302320935016 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Legal Origins (2002)
Working Paper: Legal Origins (2001)
Working Paper: Legal Origins (2001)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:qjecon:v:117:y:2002:i:4:p:1193-1229.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Quarterly Journal of Economics is currently edited by Robert J. Barro, Lawrence F. Katz, Nathan Nunn, Andrei Shleifer and Stefanie Stantcheva

More articles in The Quarterly Journal of Economics from President and Fellows of Harvard College
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().