Sanctions and Rewards in the Legal System: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Ten distinguished experts look at the important subject of sanctions and rewards in the legal system from the perspective of their individual disciplines. Among the issues they consider are society's selection of legal and other techniques to encourage obedience to the law, the relative effectiveness of rewards and sanctions, the usefulness of the present tort system in deterring undesirable conduct, and the question of whether we are aiming our sanctions at the right persons. These are crucial questions - so fundamental that they are often passed over by scholars, not to mention by lawmakers, as too difficult to answer.

This collection of essays helps us understand some of the dimensions of these questions by seeing how various disciplines have dealt with them. A developmental psychologist examines the contribution her discipline can make to the topic. A historian explores the origins of the present penal system. An anthropologist places sanctions and rewards in the context of past and present societies. An economist measures the potential effectiveness of deterence. Other experts in law, political science, organizational behaviour, and sociology offer unique perspectives.

This book is the first stage in a program on sanctions and rewards in the legal system sponsored by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and part of the Institute's wider program on law and society.