IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jlstud/doi10.1086-693020.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Inevitability and Ubiquity of Cycling in All Feasible Legal Regimes: A Formal Proof

Author

Listed:
  • Leo Katz
  • Alvaro Sandroni

Abstract

Intransitive choices, or cycling, are generally held to be the mark of irrationality. When a set of rules engenders such choices, it is usually held to be irrational and in need of reform. In this article, we prove a series of theorems, demonstrating that all feasible legal regimes are going to be rife with cycling. Our first result, the legal cycling theorem, shows that unless a legal system meets some extremely restrictive conditions, it will lead to cycling. The discussion that follows, along with our second result, the combination theorem, shows exactly why these conditions are almost impossible to meet. All of this has numerous implications to which we can only allude here. For one, it suggests why law is as susceptible to manipulation and exploitation of loopholes as it has proved to be.

Suggested Citation

  • Leo Katz & Alvaro Sandroni, 2017. "The Inevitability and Ubiquity of Cycling in All Feasible Legal Regimes: A Formal Proof," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 46(2), pages 237-280.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlstud:doi:10.1086/693020
    DOI: 10.1086/693020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/693020
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/693020
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/693020?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Leo Katz & Alvaro Sandroni, 2021. "The (Non) Economic Properties of the Law," Games, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-8, March.
    2. Alvaro Sandroni & Leo Katz, 2024. "The leveling axiom," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 96(1), pages 135-152, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:jlstud:doi:10.1086/693020. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JLS .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.