> But this seems to be
>a matter bewtween the person who speaks and the person who decides
>what to believe. I don't see why other people should have much say
>over their choice.
The economic argument, for what it is worth, is that fraudulent statements
impose very dispersed costs on the people who believe them.The "injured
party" in defamation has sufficient incentive to sue; the real victims
don't.
On the other hand, the "injured party" has even more incentive to sue if
the statement is true but hard to prove--in which case the "real victims"
aren't victims.
David Friedman
Professor of Law
Santa Clara University
ddfr@best.com
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/
Received on Tue Apr 21 05:41:03 1998
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