arbiter
JournalsAccount

Legal inflation and defective laws

Mario I. Juarez‐Garcia

Economics and Philosophy2025https://doi.org/10.1017/s026626712510062xarticle
AJG 2ABDC A
Weight
0.37

Abstract

Legal systems often suffer from what may be called legal inflation : an excess of laws that erodes legal compliance. The difficulty lies in identifyng which laws are responsible for this erosion. Democratic deliberation is poorly suited to the task. This paper advances an identification criterion: laws that generate both widespread non-compliance and inconsistent enforcement should be regarded as defective , because they fail to function as laws. I propose a new version of the rule of obsolescence to repeal defective laws. This framework clarifies the mechanisms by which legal inflation undermines institutional stability and offers guidance for legal reform.

1 citation

Open via your library →

Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/s026626712510062x

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{mario2025,
  title        = {{Legal inflation and defective laws}},
  author       = {Mario I. Juarez‐Garcia},
  journal      = {Economics and Philosophy},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/s026626712510062x},
}

Paste directly into BibTeX, Zotero, or your reference manager.

Flag this paper

Legal inflation and defective laws

Flags are reviewed by the Arbiter methodology team within 5 business days.

Evidence weight

0.37

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.16 × 0.4 = 0.06
M · momentum0.53 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.