Virtual Worlds, Real Rules

45 Pages Posted: 5 May 2008 Last revised: 12 May 2008

See all articles by Caroline M. Bradley

Caroline M. Bradley

University of Miami - School of Law

A. Michael Froomkin

University of Miami - School of Law; Yale University - Yale Information Society Project

Abstract

Increased legal harmonization reinforces the need for a new way to test legal rules. As legal diversity decreases, there are fewer alternate rules to draw from, and thus potentially useful de facto experimentation with alternative rules becomes rarer and more difficult. This article argues that the ability to test legal rules in virtual worlds could help to solve a long-running, and worsening problem in the design of legal rules - the barriers to experimentation caused by an increasing tendency to the harmonization of law. In a world where real world experimentation with legal rules is likely to be useful, but also difficult and expensive, experimentation with legal rules in Virtual Worlds may be a valuable substitute. Large numbers of enthusiastic players in Virtual Worlds could test legal rules in an environment closer to the real world than many of the experiments that behavioral economists run to test economic behavior.

Suggested Citation

Bradley, Caroline M. and Froomkin, A. Michael, Virtual Worlds, Real Rules. New York Law School Law Review, Vol. 49, 2004, University of Miami Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2008-22, TPRC 2003, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1127722

Caroline M. Bradley (Contact Author)

University of Miami - School of Law ( email )

P.O. Box 248087
Coral Gables, FL 33146
United States
305-284-2082 (Phone)
305-284-6506 (Fax)

A. Michael Froomkin

University of Miami - School of Law ( email )

P.O. Box 248087
Coral Gables, FL 33146
United States
305-284-4285 (Phone)
305-284-6506 (Fax)

Yale University - Yale Information Society Project ( email )

127 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
United States

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