The More Corrupt the State, the More Numerous the Laws

After nearly two thousand years, Tacitus’ famous quote remains strikingly relevant and offers a timeless warning about authority, greed, and the true nature of state control. It is the corrupt and overpowering state that tends to create and pass “numerous “Statutes or Legislative Acts by disguising political failures as attentive governance.

In today’s unlimited democracies, the Law as overarching legal framework ceases to protect the freedom of people, and Statutes become tools of control, crafted to benefit, restrain or silence. Complexity replaces clarity, power hides behind paperwork and free speech often turns into a personal risk. The number of Statutes is no proof of Justice but evidence of the Law’s rapid decay.

Compose your essay on the following topic:

Corruptissima Re Publica Plurimae Leges.

Publius Cornelius Tacitus (appr. 58AD-120AD)

Although the Legislative– and Executive branches in democracies were clearly distinguished in the past, the current blurring of the lines has led to a situation in which a single body enacts and enforces legislative actions while simultaneously conducting government business. Over time it seems that the Legislative branch has assumed the power to grant favors to specific voter groups or coalitions of organized interests and thus degenerated into an assembly of ‘wheelers and dealers’.

While the term Law (das Recht) comprises only the prevailing legal system of enforceable rules that governs a democratic society, Legislation on the other hand,denotes specific written Statutes or Acts of Legislation (die Gesetze) that are formally introduced to and passed by the Legislative branch of a state. However current political parlance commits the essential mistake of equating Legislation, Statute or Act with the general constitutional Law that stipulates social order and cohesion of democratic societies. This confusion of caused that genuine Law was falling under the control of the government. Accordingly we have grown accustomed to calling every issued Statute, Legislative Act erroneously a Law without giving much thought that Legislative Acts can easily be turned into legal tools that can restrict individual Rights and thus dangerously undermines the fundamental liberal principles of the “Government under the Law” and the “Rule of Law”.

However, these two fundamental principles can only be meaningfully applied if we clearly distinguish Law from Legislation. They form the limits of the coercive powers of every constitutional state, which has neither discretionary power over its citizens nor any power other than that necessary for enforcing these principles. Thus the flood of sometimes very detailed Statutes (falsely called Laws) renders the legal system muddy and leads to bureaucracy, corruptive uncertainty, and abuse of power by interest groups who have Legislations written to their advantage.

It is for these reasons that Tacitus’ famous quote on corruption remains strikingly relevant today and continues to resonate by offering a timeless warning about authority, greed, and the true nature of state power. However, the translation of his quote confused “numerous Laws” with numerous Statutes or Legislative Acts. It is the corrupt and overpowering state that tends to create and pass “numerous“ Statutes or Legislative Acts, often to disguise political failures or deviousness as attentive governance. In today’s unlimited democracies the Law as overarching legal framework ceases to protect and guide the people. Instead Statutes or acts of Legislation become tools of control, crafted to benefit, restrain or silence. Complexity replaces clarity, power hides behind paperwork and free speech often turns into a personal risk. An excessive and centralized legislative system that issues numerous Statutes does not create order, but on the contrary, is a symptom and instrument of corruption and state arbitrariness. The more Statutes the state enacts, the more unpredictable its actions become. Instead of protecting citizens, this flood of Legislative Acts often leads to a redistribution of Rights in favor of politically powerful coalitions of organized interests. In other words, for Tacitus, the number of Statutes is no proof of justice but evidence of decay.

All entries must meet the following 6 requirements:

1. No entry may be generated by ChatGPT or any other AI application. All participants are required to add their signed pledge to have written the contending essay without any such support. Any use of an AI bot or other AI tool to fully or partially create the essay will be considered in breach of intern. academic plagiarism policy.
2. Entries may be submitted by individuals of up to 30 years (in 2026) and must be received on or before November 16, 2026.
3. Entries must be submitted in English in electronic form (PDF) to krl@ecaef.org and/or admin@ecaef.org and must include a current CV, Date of Birth and their signed pledge.
4. Entries may not exceed 10 pages, including a full bibliography and a 1/2 page abstract; 1.5 spacing; left/right margins no less than 1 inch.
5. Winners will be invited to present and defend their papers at a special event in Vaduz (Principality of Liechtenstein) on February 22, 2027. Their presence is mandatory.
6. Prizes are not transferable. An international jury will judge essays on the basis of originality, grasp of subject and the logical consistence of the argument.

First Prize: €4,000 – Second Prize: €3,000 – Third Prize: €2,000.

The International Vernon Smith Prize

has been established in 2008 by ECAEF for the advancement of Austrian Economics. The essay competition is named after Vernon Lomax Smith. He is a professor of economics at Chapman University’s Argyros School of Business and Economics and School of Law in Orange, California, a research scholar at George Mason University Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science, and a Fellow of the Mercatus Center, all in Arlington, Virginia. Smith shared the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Daniel Kahneman. He is also the founder and president of the International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics, a Member of the Board of Advisors for The Independent Institute, and a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington D.C.