How I Got Into This Becker and Stigler Landes and Posner Friedman Why the enforcement of criminal law is not incentive compatible The cost to the criminal of conviction more than the benefit to the cop So an obvious opportunity for corruption, costs of preventing it Replace with a bounty system: Criminal’s fine goes to cop Landes and Posner Congratulations: You have just reinvented tort law The punishment is a damage payment paid to the victim And it is the victim who prosecutes you and gets you convicted And here are reasons it might not work for criminal law Friedman Here is a real world system, saga period Iceland, Where it did work–for longer than the U.S. has existed

The History Discovery c. 870 Harald Haarfagr unified Norway under his rule A much stronger monarchy than before Some people did not like it, and Their professions were farming and piracy—vikings So they loaded up their ships and set sail for Iceland Legal system set up c. 930 Additional developments through 1000 When Iceland went Christian by an arbitrated settlement c. 1200 things started going wrong: Sturlung Period 1262-3 the country came under the rule of the king of Norway

Sources of Information Family sagas Accounts of events c. 10th century Written down 13th, 14th c. Dispute on whether they were composed then or when they were written down Evidence from Egilsaga Egil, his father and grandfather had various odd characteristics Which fit Padgett’s syndrome, a hereditary disease discovered in the 19th century Suggests the saga was assembled shortly after the events happened Sagas can be checked against foreign historical sources, match pretty well Sturlung sagas Written down in the 13th c., shortly after the events they describe By participants Surviving written law codes. Gragas is a collection of private legal notes Almost all from the very end of the period and just after

Gragas vs the Sagas According to Gragas In the sagas Out of court settlement of a serious offense requires permission from the Logretta Anyone who attacks someone and is killed falls with forfeit immunity Various other details In the sagas Almost all cases are settled out of court Many when the Logretta was not in session There is no mention of anyone getting or not getting permission to settle Death of the attackers is often counted in calculating the settlement terms Some other details also don’t fit with Gragas version This is true of the Sturlung sagas as well as the family sagas My conclusion: Where they disagree Trust the sagas At least for the law in practice

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