Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

General and Specific Rules

2005; Mohr Siebeck Verlag; Volume: 161; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1628/0932456054193496

1614-0559

Christoph Engel,

Taxation and Compliance Studies

Which is better: general or specific rules? Throughout legal history, this has been debated. German legal history offers examples for two extreme solutions: The Preuisches Allgemeines Landrecht wanted to offer a ready-made solution for every conceivable conflict. The Zivilgesetzbuch of the former German Democratic Republic wanted to get rid of doctrinal intricacies by boiling all civil law down to little more than 200 paragraphs. Ironically, both legislators claimed their intervention would make law more accessible to its addressees. Mahoney and Sanchirico [2005] add a new and important dimension to the debate. They interpret general rules as a tool that may, but need not, help a benevolent legislator reduce the detrimental effects of lobbying. This comment claims that the main result of the paper can be generated with a simpler model (section 2). With small extensions, the ecological validity of the model can even be increased (section 3).