Game Theory and Law
Abstract
Abstract. The article is devoted to the underexplored issue of applying the principles of game theory in law. It has been shown that there are currently few scholarly works in Ukrainian legal science devoted to the application of game theory in law. The context within which the stated topic is revealed is the recognition that play (in the broad sense) is ontologically rooted in anthropological reality and is derived from cultural experience, which manifests itself as a set of actions, consciousness, and communication, thereby performing a modeling function within social reality. It is argued that under the conditions of modern interdisciplinarity, it is entirely appropriate to borrow achievements from other fields of scientific knowledge to study complex issues of legal regulation (in particular, to examine law through the main principles of game theory in the logical sequence mathematics – economics – law). Although the problem of interdisciplinary methods in law is currently relevant, within Ukrainian jurisprudence game theory has not yet found widespread application. It is emphasized that the game-theoretic approach represents a promising method for analyzing legal relations, as game theory is useful to jurisprudence as a method of examining legal interactions. The game-theoretic approach explores real conflict situations by constructing models and then identifying patterns that constitute its predictive function. With the help of game theory, it is possible to describe a variety of situations in law. At present, there is no unified understanding within the scientific community of how game theory can be applied in law; therefore, there is still a limited number of studies devoted to identifying potential areas for the application of the game-theoretic approach. This article focuses on such types of games in law as cooperative/non-cooperative and zero-sum/non-zero-sum games. Considerable attention is paid to revealing the essence of the main structural components of a legal game (players – participants in legal relations; strategies – sets of permitted and prohibited actions; payoff – the final outcome) and their specific features.
Keywords: law; game theory; legal relations; behavior of legal subjects; players; payoff; convention; conflict; cooperation; agreement; contracts; plaintiff; defendant; claim; social contract; rationality.
Downloads
References
Baird, D., Gertner, R., & Piker, R. (1998). Game Theory and the Law. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Baranovska, L.V. (2022). Game theory: a course of lectures. Kyiv: I. Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Retrieved from https://ela.kpi.ua/handle/123456789/49092
Chernenko, N. (2022). Game Theory in Personnel Management. Tavria Scientific Bulletin, 14, 58-66. DOI: 10.32782/2708-0366/2022.14.8
Gábriš, T. (2025). Convention as a Tool of Coordination: R.G. Millikan's Theory and Game Theory. State and Law, 1, 28-47. DOI: 10.24040/sap.2025.12.1.28-47
Hobbs, T. (2025). Leviathan, or Matter, Form and Power of the Ecclesiastical and Civil State. Kyiv: Folio.
Kolomiiets, H.B. (2020). Application of game theory in taxation as a sphere of coordination of public and private interests. Bulletin of Khmelnytsky National University, 4(3), 202-205. DOI: 10.31891/2307-5740-2020-284-4(3)-37
Korniienko, V.O., Denisiuk, S.H., & Shyian, A.A. Theory of Cooperative Games. Retrieved from https://ir.lib.vntu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/12182/%D0%A2%D0%B5%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%96%D1%8F%20%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0% BE%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%B2%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%85%20%D1%96%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%80.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Kornyliuk, R. (2015) Mind player John Nash: what he left to the world. Retrieved from https://mathematics.in.ua/en/stories/item/121-hravets-rozumu-dzhon-nesh-shcho-vin-zalyshyv-svitovi
Lipski, H.M., & Kovalenko, O.V. (2022). Game theory in modern research: current state and prospects. Odesa: Odessa National University.
Lok, Dzh. (2020). Two Treatises on Government. Kyiv: Our Format.
Maliarenko, T. (2009). Game Theory in Conflict Research. Regional Education, 4, 162-168.
Martišová, A. (2022). Mezinárodné environmentalné dohody z perspektive teórie hier. Mendelova Univerzita v Brno.
Russo, Zh.-Zh. (2001). On the social contract, or the principles of political law. Kyiv.
Slushna, N.V. (2021). Game and decision-making. Computer games and multimedia as an innovative approach to communication: materials of the I All-Ukrainian Scientific and Technical Conference (pp. 25-26). Odesa: ONAHT.
Tyshchenko, O.I., & Soloviov, I.M. (2021). Modeling conflicts in game theory. Dnipro: Prydnipro. un-t.
Vithenshtein, L. Philosophical Studies. Retrieved from http://www.philsci.univ.kiev.ua/biblio/vitgen.html
Vitková, Z. (2025). Teória hier says that the trip is more beneficial, but fortunately, people are not cold-blooded rationalists, vraví vedkyňa. Retrieved from https://dennikn.sk/4900871/teoria-hier-hovori-ze-podraz-je-vyhodnejsi-no-ludia-nastastie-nie-su-chladnokrvne-racionalni-vravi-vedkyna/
Von Neumann, J. (1953). Theory of Social Games. Kurt Gödel on Formalism and Intuitionism (pp. 49-59). A.W. Tucker, R.D. Luce (Ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press
Walker, P. (2017). A Chronology of Game Theory. Retrieved from https://competitionanda ppropriation.econ.ucla.edu/wpcontent/uploads/sites/95/2017/08/HistoryGameTheory.pdf
Yudin, Z.M. (2017). Game theory of the contract: some theoretical considerations. Precarpathian Legal Bulletin, 1(16), 8-13.
Zubar, V.M., & Kifak, A.O. (2023). Some aspects of the application of game theory in law. Legal position, 2(39), 211-214. DOI: 10.32782/2521-6473.2023-2.42
Abstract views: 0 PDF Downloads: 0
Copyright (c) 2025 Philosophical and Methodological Problems of Law
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Authors reserve the right to authorship of their own work and transfer to the magazine the right of the first publication of this work under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows other persons to freely distribute published work with mandatory reference to authors of the original work and the first publication of an article in this magazine.
- Authors have the right to enter into separate additional agreements on non-exclusive dissemination of the work in the form in which it was published in the journal (for example, to post an article in the institution's repository or to publish as part of a monograph), provided that the link to the first publication of the work in this journal is maintained.
- The journal's policy allows and encourages the posting of articles by authors on the Internet (for example, in electronic storehouses of institutions or on personal websites), both before the submission of this manuscript to the editorial office and during its editorial processing, as this contributes to the creation of a productive scientific discussion and positively affects the efficiency and dynamics of citing the published work.
