Social Sciences in China

Vol. 38, No. 4, 2017

Institutional Incentives, Game Equilibrium and Social Justice: Toward a Unified Theory of Pure Jurisprudence

(Abstract)

Ding Li

This article seeks to make a constructive advance in jurisprudential theory by employing the unified analytical framework of modern social science. We first outline the main ideas of individual rational decision-making and game theory and of social choice and mechanism design, before offering a preliminary discussion of their application to legal issues. The core thesis is that the law in combination  with other social norms provides institutional incentives to all actors in society. Legislators’ social justice objectives can be reasonably enforced only as a result of behavioral equilibrium  in the social game.

Keywords: law, social justice, institutional incentive, game equilibrium