Games, Information, and Evidence Production: With Application to English Legal History
Posted: 29 Feb 2008
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Games, Information and Evidence Production, with Application to English Legal History
Games, Information, and Evidence Production: With Application to English Legal History
Abstract
This paper studies the problem of how the legal system regulates activity outside the courtroom based on information supplied in court by interested and potentially dishonest parties. The supply of information is analyzed along a game-theoretic dimension: the extent to which the supplier has an interest in how the information will be used. Such analysis uncovers a basic trade-off in system design between the 'fixed costs' of hearings (e.g., the productive activity forsaken by participation) and the cost of the evidence produced therein. This trade-off helps to explain and connect several trends in the historical evolution of English civil process.
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