The Meaning of Harm

This chapter uses the insights from Chapter 9 to examine the meaning of harm, and, by extension, the appropriate content of criminal law. The idea of reciprocal causation implies that harm is not a clearly defined concept, but is only understood in relation to a particular definition of legal rights. This is a manifestation of the fundamental economic insight that harm can always be defined as a foregone benefit, and benefit as an avoided harm. The chapter draws out the implications of this idea for contemporary policy debates regarding civil disobedience, cancel culture, expression of identity, freedom of speech, and victimless crimes. It concludes by acknowledging the limit of economic theory for determining the meaning of harm.