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Optimal Real-Time Review Standards: Implications for Law Enforcement and Competitive Games

Author

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  • Mungan Murat C.

    (Texas A&M University School of Law, Fort Worth, USA)

Abstract

Real-time review systems are frequently used in various sports to monitor the decisions of referees and correct their mistakes. Interventions through these systems cause delays in games, which are perceived as being costly. This makes it optimal for these review systems to interfere with the decisions of the referee less frequently than would minimize the costs of decision errors, which I formalize through an analysis of the VAR system in football. This analysis also reveals that optimal review standards ought to be laxer when an important event (e.g., a goal) occurs between the position in which the potential error took place and the VAR intervention. In the near future, it may be possible to introduce similar review systems in the law enforcement context, e.g., by utilizing police officers’ body cameras. I compare optimal intervention standards in this context to their analogues in the sports context, and discuss implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Mungan Murat C., 2025. "Optimal Real-Time Review Standards: Implications for Law Enforcement and Competitive Games," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 21(3), pages 579-595.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:rlecon:v:21:y:2025:i:3:p:579-595:n:1003
    DOI: 10.1515/rle-2024-0117
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Miceli, Thomas J., 1991. "Optimal criminal procedure: Fairness and deterrence," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 3-10, May.
    2. Murat C Mungan, 2018. "Optimal Preventive Law Enforcement and Stopping Standards," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 20(2), pages 289-317.
    3. Murat C. Mungan, 2011. "A Utilitarian Justification for Heightened Standards of Proof in Criminal Trials," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 167(2), pages 352-370, June.
    4. Dominique Demougin & Claude Fluet, 2005. "Deterrence versus Judicial Error: A Comparative View of Standards of Proof," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 161(2), pages 193-206, June.
    5. Ibai Errekagorri & Julen Castellano & Ibon Echeazarra & Carlos Lago-Peñas, 2020. "The effects of the Video Assistant Referee system (VAR) on the playing time, technical-tactical and physical performance in elite soccer," International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(5), pages 808-817, September.
    6. Murat C Mungan, 2020. "Justifications, Excuses, and Affirmative Defenses [“Deterrence versus Judicial Error: A Comparative View of Standards of Proof]," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 36(2), pages 343-377.
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • K0 - Law and Economics - - General
    • K4 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior
    • K41 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Litigation Process
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • Z2 - Other Special Topics - - Sports Economics
    • Z28 - Other Special Topics - - Sports Economics - - - Policy
    • Z29 - Other Special Topics - - Sports Economics - - - Other

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