Reexamining the Role of Incarceration and Stigma in Criminal Law

One of the ways by which the legal system has responded to different sets of problems is the blurring of the traditional boundaries of criminal law, both procedural and substantive. This study aims to explore under what conditions does this trend lead to the improvement of society's welfare by focusing on two distinguishing sanctions in criminal law, incarceration and social stigma. In analyzing how incarceration affects the incentive to an individual to violate a legal standard, we considered the crucial role of the time constraint. This aspect has not been fully explored in the literature on law and economics, especially with respect to the analysis of the beneficiality of imposing either a fine or a prison term. We observed that that when individuals are heterogeneous with respect to wealth and wage income, and when the level of activity can be considered a normal good, only the middle wage and middle income groups can be adequately deterred by a fixed fines alone regime. The existing literature only considers the case of the very poor, deemed as judgment proof. However, since imprisonment is a socially costly way to deprive individuals of their time, other alternatives may be sought such as the imposition of discriminatory monetary fine, partial incapacitation and other alternative sanctions. According to traditional legal theory, the reason why criminal law is obeyed is not mainly due to the monetary sanctions but to the stigma arising from the community’s moral condemnation that accompanies conviction or merely suspicion. However, it is not sufficiently clear whether social stigma always accompanies a criminal conviction. We addressed this issue by identifying the circumstances wherein a criminal conviction carries an additional social stigma. Our results show that social stigma is seen to accompany a conviction under the following conditions: first, when the law coincides with the society's social norms; and second, when the prohibited act provides information on an unobservable attribute or trait of an individual -- crucial in establishing or maintaining social relationships beyond mere economic relationships. Thus, even if the social planner does not impose the social sanction directly, the impact of social stigma can still be influenced by the probability of conviction and the level of the monetary fine imposed as well as the varying degree of correlation between the legal standard violated and the social traits or attributes of the individual. In this respect, criminal law serves as an institution that facilitates cognitive efficiency in the process of imposing the social sanction to the extent that the rest of society is boundedly rational and use judgment heuristics. Paradoxically, using criminal law in order to invoke stigma for the violation of a legal standard may also serve to undermine its strength. To sum, the results of our analysis reveal that the scope of criminal law is narrow both for the purposes of deterrence and cognitive efficiency. While there are certain conditions where the enforcement of criminal law may lead to an increase in social welfare, particularly with respect to incarceration and stigma, we have also identified the channels through which they could affect behavior. Since such mechanisms can be replicated in less costly ways, society should first try or seek to employ these legal institutions before turning to criminal law as a last resort.

Il principio di precauzione in diritto penale

Oggetto della ricerca è la rilevanza nell’ambito del diritto penale del principio di precauzione. Quest’ultimo deve la sua diffusione e popolarità al fatto di presentarsi come criterio guida al problema del rischio e dell’incertezza. L’esigenza di adottare scelte normative in condizioni di incertezza scientifica è infatti oggi ineludibile. Si cercherà in primo luogo di circoscrivere l’oggetto dell’indagine analizzando il rilievo che il principio di precauzione ha a livello legislativo e giurisprudenziale. Quindi si analizzeranno le problematiche che il ricorso allo stesso suscita con riferimento alla struttura classica del reato e legate al contesto di incertezza nel quale viene invocato. Tali problematiche si riferiscono alla possibilità o meno di dare rilevanza al modello del reato di pericolo, alla ricostruzione del nesso causale e all’influenza che il principio di precauzione può determinare nell’accertamento dell’elemento soggettivo delle colpa. Si concluderà l’analisi analizzando le diverse posizioni assunte dalla dottrina italiana circa l’opportunità o meno dell’intervento penale in contesti di incertezza scientifica, individuando, in caso di risposta affermativa, le modalità di intervento.

La tutela penale ambientale e la nozione di rifiuto fra istanze soprannazionali ed approdi nostrani

Sanctions and public enforcement of insider trading laws in Europe

The recent financial crisis triggered an increasing demand for financial regulation to counteract the potential negative economic effects of the evermore complex operations and instruments available on financial markets. As a result, insider trading regulation counts amongst the relatively recent but particularly active regulation battles in Europe and overseas. Claims for more transparency and equitable securities markets proliferate, ranging from concerns about investor protection to global market stability. The internationalization of the world’s securities market has challenged traditional notions of regulation and enforcement. Considering that insider trading is currently forbidden all over Europe, this study follows a law and economics approach in identifying how this prohibition should be enforced. More precisely, the study investigates first whether criminal law is necessary under all circumstances to enforce insider trading; second, if it should be introduced at EU level. This study provides evidence of law and economics theoretical logic underlying the legal mechanisms that guide sanctioning and public enforcement of the insider trading prohibition by identifying optimal forms, natures and types of sanctions that effectively induce insider trading deterrence. The analysis further aims to reveal the economic rationality that drives the potential need for harmonization of criminal enforcement of insider trading laws within the European environment by proceeding to a comparative analysis of the current legislations of height selected Member States. This work also assesses the European Union’s most recent initiative through a critical analysis of the proposal for a Directive on criminal sanctions for Market Abuse. Based on the conclusions drawn from its close analysis, the study takes on the challenge of analyzing whether or not the actual European public enforcement of the laws prohibiting insider trading is coherent with the theoretical law and economics recommendations, and how these enforcement practices could be improved.

La funzione limitatrice dei principi - valori costituzionali nella giurisprudenza costituzionale. Riflessi ed implicazioni sulla legalità penale

La tesi di ricerca si propone di indagare il riflesso che i principi/valori producono sul parametro nel sindacato di legittimità costituzionale, al fine di verificarne le implicazioni sulla legalità, in termini di prevedibilità e certezza. In particolare, delineata la connessione tra principi e valori costituzionali e, ricostruito, secondo la teoria dell'ordinamento, il rapporto tra valori e normatività,si analizzano i riflessi prodotti, sul piano interpretativo, dall’apertura del parametro costituzionale alla logica dei valori, enfatizzandone le ricadute sul controllo di costituzionalità delle leggi. Identificato il nesso tra principi e valori nella capacità funzionale dei primi di realizzare i diritti fondamentali, si è inteso rimarcare come la più estesa realizzazione dei principi-valori costituzionali potrebbe compiersi a spese della legge e della certezza del diritto, in una relazione inversamente proporzionale. Ciò apparirebbe evidente dall’ottica privilegiata della materia penale, per cui una legalità materiale, letta alla luce di criteri di adeguatezza e di ragionevole proporzione, seppur vicina alle esigenze di giustizia del caso concreto, se spinta in eccessi interpretativi rischia di invadere il campo del legislatore, unico deputato a compiere scelte di valore.

Fighting corruption with pyramids: A Law and Economics approach to combating corruption in post-socialist countries

Corruption is, in the last two decades, considered as one of the biggest problems within the international community, which harms not only a particular state or society but the whole world. The discussion on corruption in law and economics approach is mainly run under the veil of Public choice theory and principal-agent model. Based on this approach the strong international initiatives taken by the UN, the OECD and the Council of Europe, provided various measures and tools in order to support and guide countries in their combat against corruption. These anti-corruption policies created a repression -prevention-transparency model for corruption combat. Applying this model, countries around the world adopted anti-corruption strategies as part of their legal rules. Nevertheless, the recent researches on the effects of this move show non impressive results. Critics argue that “one size does not fit all” because the institutional setting of countries around the world varies. Among the countries which experience problems of corruption, even though they follow the dominant anti-corruption trends, are transitional, post-socialist countries. To this group belong the countries which are emerging from centrally planned to an open market economy. The socialist past left traces on institutional setting, mentality of the individuals and their interrelation, particularly in the domain of public administration. If the idiosyncrasy of these countries is taken into account the suggestion in this thesis is that in public administration in post-socialist countries, instead of dominant anti-corruption scheme repression-prevention-transparency, corruption combat should be improved through the implementation of a new one, structure-conduct-performance. The implementation of this model is based on three regulatory pyramids: anti-corruption, disciplinary anti-corruption and criminal anti-corruption pyramid. This approach asks public administration itself to engage in corruption combat, leaving criminal justice system as the ultimate weapon, used only for the very harmful misdeeds.