Legal Theory Lexicon: The Prisoners' Dilemma

Introduction One of the most useful tools in analyzing legal rules and the policy problems to which they apply is game theory. The basic idea of game theory is simple. Many human interactions can be modeled as games. To use game theory, we build a simple model of a real world situations as a game. Thus, we might model civil litigation as a game played by plaintiffs against defendants. Or we might model the confirmation of federal judges by the Senate as a game played by Democrats and Republicans. This week's installment of the Legal Theory Lexicon discusses one important example of game theory, the prisoner's dilemma. This introduction is very basic–aimed at a first year law student with an interest in legal theory. An Example Ben and Alice have been arrested for robbing Fort Knox and placed in separate cells. The police make the following offer to each of them. "You may choose to confess or remain silent. If you confess and your accomplice…

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