Punishment, Public Law Enforcement, and the Protective State

This book seeks to derive the state in its protective task from the choices and the consent of rational individuals. It analyses, in an economic perspective, the conditions under which cooperation among self-interested individuals can emerge and prevail in the absence of some centralized agency. It compares private and public enforcement of the law and discusses the relative attractiveness of either regime. In particular, this book seeks to explain the reasons for a public enforcement of the criminal law.