The More Corrupt the State, the More Numerous the Laws.

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

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. Click here for more details.

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.

All entries must meet the following 6 requirements:

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.
Entries may be submitted by individuals of up to 30 years (in 2026) and must be received on or before November 16, 2026.
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.
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.
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.
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.

18th International Vernon Smith Prize (2025): Are the Poor getting Poorer because the Rich are getting Richer?

17th International Vernon Smith Prize (2024): Is education a public or a private good? Who gains from being educated?

16th Vernon Smith Prize (2023): The Rule of Law. Its Meaning and Purpose

15th Vernon Smith Prize (2022): …if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.

14th Vernon Smith Prize (2021): The Pretense of Knowledge as a Method of Governance

13th Vernon Smith Prize (2020): Is the Public Interest really in the public’s interest?

12th Vernon Smith Prize (2019): When the People fear their Government, there is Tyranny. When the Government fears the People, there is Liberty

11th Vernon Smith Prize (2018): Obscured by Fake News: The Politics, Morals, and Limits of Genetic Engineering

10th Vernon Smith Prize (2017): Does Tolerance become a crime when applied to evil?

9th Vernon Smith Prize (2016): Direct Democracy versus Representative Democracy. Cost and Benefits for the Citizenry!

8th Vernon Smith Prize (2015): Edward J. Snowden – Hero or Villian?

7th Vernon Smith Prize (2014): Trusting politicians with our money is like leaving a cat in charge of a cream jug.

6th Vernon Smith Prize (2013): Public Debt? Cheat the Citizen!

5th Vernon Smith Prize (2012): “A Government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” – George Bernhard Shaw

4th Vernon Smith Prize (2011): The Rule of Law in Decline – “It seems clear that a nominally unlimited (sovereign) representative assembly must be progressively driven into a steady and unlimited extension of the powers of government.” – Friedrich A. von Hayek

3rd Vernon Smith Prize (2010): Concurrent Currencies: A Choice in Money to Solve the Crisis?

2nd Vernon Smith Prize (2009): “This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism. It is what capitalism consists in and what every capitalist concern has got to live in.” – Joseph A. Schumpeter

1st Vernon Smith Prize (2008): Nation, State, and Liberty – At the occasion of the 2nd. edition of Ludwig von Mises’ German original “Nation, Staat und Wirtschaft” ECAEF invited papers on this topic.