Dial M for moral hazard? Incentives to murder and the Life Assurance Act 1774
Dial M for moral hazard? Incentives to murder and the Life Assurance Act 1774
Legal principles often carry inside them historical judgments about human behaviour, and law?s role in dissuading socially harmful actions. In deciding which family members have the right to insure another?s life, Eighteenth century the courts made reference to theories of punishment and deterrence. Sadly, those same views are repeated today as if universally true. This paper challenges the existing class-based model and the myth of the universally loving spouse by reference to empirical evidence. What emerges is a picture of murder for life insurance monies that, whilst rare, spans socio-economic groups and permeates all forms of social relationship. Ultimately, the world imagined by the Life Assurance Act 1774 is shown to be total fantasy
Davey, James
6fe8c2ef-5959-4877-94a5-a55098975daa
2014
Davey, James
6fe8c2ef-5959-4877-94a5-a55098975daa
Davey, James
(2014)
Dial M for moral hazard? Incentives to murder and the Life Assurance Act 1774.
Insurance Law Journal, 25 (2).
Abstract
Legal principles often carry inside them historical judgments about human behaviour, and law?s role in dissuading socially harmful actions. In deciding which family members have the right to insure another?s life, Eighteenth century the courts made reference to theories of punishment and deterrence. Sadly, those same views are repeated today as if universally true. This paper challenges the existing class-based model and the myth of the universally loving spouse by reference to empirical evidence. What emerges is a picture of murder for life insurance monies that, whilst rare, spans socio-economic groups and permeates all forms of social relationship. Ultimately, the world imagined by the Life Assurance Act 1774 is shown to be total fantasy
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Published date: 2014
Organisations:
Faculty of Business, Law and Art
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Local EPrints ID: 368832
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/368832
ISSN: 1030-2379
PURE UUID: 0945ba7c-8661-4d8d-988e-09b6451fd56c
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Date deposited: 12 Sep 2014 15:48
Last modified: 22 Jul 2022 19:08
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Author:
James Davey
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