Punishment, Compensation, and Law: A Theory of Enforceability

This book is the first comprehensive study of the problem of the enforceability of restraint. Focusing on the enforceability of legal rights, but also addressing the enforceability of moral rights and social conventions, Mark Reiff explains how we use punishment and compensation to make restraints operative in the world. Describing the various means by which restraints may be enforced, he explains how the sufficiency of enforcement can be measured. He also develops a new, unified theory of deterrence, retribution, and compensation that shows how various aspects of enforceability relate to one another. Reiff then applies his theory of enforceability to illuminate a variety of real-world problem situations.