Law as a Complex Adaptive System?

This is an interesting syllabus. 

Dealing with prostitution across Europe

The Guardian posted an interesting article regarding how politicians are dealing with ever-lasting prostitution and the externalities of this social phenomenon. The answer to why prostitution has been around since forever is fairly logic and easy: there´s  an actual market for it; buyers and sellers, services and products...and prices. But the 21st century calls for a new approach to get a hold on social behaviors the likes of prostitution, and it seems that the efforts made by politicians to "solve" them need help from an economic way of thinking.

The Guardian article reads: 

Politicians across Europe are considering reforming prostitution laws as part of the fight against human trafficking and sexual exploitation. France has criminalised the purchase of sex, a model they have taken from Sweden, which has pioneered a hard-line approach to prostitution since 1999. But where do European countries stand now? -The Guardian. 

The interactive map shows how politicians attempt to regulate prostitution in European countries. However, what can we say from an economic point of view? How can economics shed a light on the regulations concerned with prostitution and its externalities? 

Coase

In "The Lighthouse in Economics" (Coase, 1974) Coase wondered about the extent to which traditionally defined public goods really constitute a market failure. The lighthouse had appeared frequently in the economics literature as a public good that needed to be supplied by the government. However, Coase observed, privately owned lighthouses existed and were typically supported by a harbor tax or equivalent assessment against the vessels that benefitted from them. The real problem was in coming up with an appropriate pricing mechanism and accounting for free riders -- in particular, boats that might pass without actually using the harbor, thus benefitting from the lighthouse without having to pay the tax. Later critics observed, however, that private lighthouses either did not exist at all or else were short-lived relatively unsuccessful ventures. (Bertrand, 2006; Barnett & Block, 2007).

That is from a short and interesting paper on Coase's life and contributions by Herbert J. Hovenkamp.