文档介绍：e Mason University

SCHOOL of LAW

THE ROLE OF RECIPROCITY IN
INTERNATIONAL LAW
02-08
Francesco Parisi and Nita Ghei

LAW AND ECONOMICS
WORKING PAPER SERIES

This paper can be downloaded without charge from the
Social Science work Electronic Paper Collection:
/abstract_id=307141
THE ROLE OF RECIPROCITY IN INTERNATIONAL LAW
Francesco Parisi* and Nita Ghei**
INTRODUCTION
[A] man be willing, when others are too, as far forth for peace and defense of himself, . .. , be
contented with so much liberty against other men as he would allow other men against
The concept of reciprocity assumes peculiar importance in a world where there is no external
authority to enforce agreements, that is, in a world that exists in Hobbesian state of nature.
Historically, norms of reciprocity have been vital is escaping lives that would otherwise be “solitary,
poor, nasty, brutish and short.”2 Reciprocity generally involves returning like behavior with like. In
Robert Axelrod’s terminology, reciprocity is a tit-for-tat Such a strategy permits
cooperation in a state of nature, when no authority for enforcement of agreements exists.
International law, in this sense, exists in a state of nature - there is no overarching legal
authority pulsory jurisdiction to enforce agreements. Inevitably, reciprocity has e an
important element in the practice of sovereign nations and in the body of existing international law.
This paper begins with setting up a taxonomy of social interactions in a game-theoretic framework,4
*Professor of Law and Director, International Business Law Program, e Mason University School of
Law; Co-Director, James M. Buchanan Program in Economics and the Law.
**Robert A. Levy Fellow in Law and Liberty. e Mason University School of Law. . candidate,
May 2002, e Mason University School of Law; ., 1992, Department of Economics, University of
Maryland, College Pa