Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Abstract

The recent studies on regulation have underscored an emerging truth in the study of law and economics. The traditional modes of classification and analysis no longer suffice to organize the study of legal institutions and legal rules. In a former day it was quite fashionable to place public and private law into rigid, separate compartments, each governed by its own set of rules. Within the area of private law, it was possible to draw sharp and clear lines between contract, tort, property and restitution. Within public law, it was fashionable to study the various techniques of social control in isolation from one another. Taxation could be placed in one box, regulation of wages and prices in another, and licensure of all forms of activities in still a third. These traditional typologies do identify the relevant techniques, but they must not be allowed to conceal the larger structure of government action. The key point is a simple one: all of the various means of social control, public and private, can be applied, either alone or in combination, to any designated set of activities. Each remedy is, or may be, a close substitute for each of the others, such that the strength and effectiveness of the one must be evaluated in its relationship to all the others. In one sense this observation serves as a charter of emancipation for the policy analyst, as it makes explicit the rich array of tools available to encourage or discourage, mandate or prohibit, various forms of social activity, all without apparent limitation. A set of original endowments may be turned at will to maximize some defined set of outputs in a world in which the policy maker is king.

First Page

433

DOI

https://doi.org/10.60082/2817-5069.1983

Volume

20

Publication Date

1982

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