Fines and damages constitute the principal sanctions used by civil, criminal and regulatory law. Money sanctions make it possible for law to govern wide swathes of existence. The ‘meaninglessness’ of money compared to loss of liberty permits simplified and cheaper criminal procedures and greatly enhances throughput of cases. This is even more so with the mass of ‘on the spot fines’ where procedure is rendered anonymous and electronic. Fines produce revenues that more than pay the costs of justice. Money damages overwhelmingly are paid by insurers – and manufacturers’ liability insurance premiums are built into commodity prices.
Something similar is true for the sometimes mammoth corporate fines. Fines and damages thus overwhelmingly are born by consumers, creating a vast market in wrongs. At the same time, especially as it doesn’t matter in law who pays, we are talking about ‘the price’ of wrongdoing literally rather than figuratively. Money sanctions work, as economists have it, to put friction in the system. Thereby fines and damages seek primarily to regulate flows and distributions of unwanted and harmful actions rather than to punish individual wrongs and extinguish immorality. Through the monetary ‘currency of justice’ law very largely has become a risk management system.