An Incentive-based Approach to Apologies and Compensation

We can recall several examples in which law deals with certain social phenomena without regulating them directly: the increasing relevance of corporate codes of conduct, the use of reputational sanctions in social networks, the emergence of public apologies in tort law. In the last example, we may focus on many legal implications, such as the opportunity to provide safe harbour legislation, the acknowledgment of mitigating eff ects on non-material damages, the idea of judge-ordered apologies. According to law and economics thought, apologies can be deemed to fall within the category of ‘ merit goods ’ : they allow people to reach the diffi cult goal of non-material compensation, giving voice to personal feelings without having to translate them into money. Th is chapter shows how behavioural incentives and mediation proceedings might be more appropriate than authoritative measures in order to gain benefi ts from apologies