The Economics of the Bill of Rights

We elucidate, connect, and synthesize the literature that employseconomics to study the individual rights and freedoms protectedby the constitutional amendments comprising the Bill of Rights,especially as they relate to crime. Economics is uniquely suitedto studying decisions involving tradeoffs, and each of the amendmentsrequires tradeoffs. Emphasizing these tradeoffs allows us todiscuss the constitutional rights in terms of "more or less,"as opposed to taking an absolutist approach. We find that theeconomic literature on the amendments of the Bill of Rightsis vibrant and growing, and that viewing the amendments withinthe framework of economics is highly useful.