Economic Justification of Judicial Discretion

Abstract

The thesis of this article is that judicial discretion can be justified by economic reasons. Therefore, the work is divided into three parts. First, there are presented two basic approaches towards judicial discretion which are present in Polish legal literature. Second, there are introduced two self-prepared cases from two different areas of law which are penal and tort law. With the usage of economic tools, there is shown that giving judges decisional freedom can lead to economically efficient sentences. According to the second example, judge’s discretional power to calculate the amount of compensation can be very important to maintain efficient tort.