Análisis económico de la administración de justicia: ¿La justicia como bien público o privado?

This paper focuses in the debate of a concept of justice conceived as a public good. By using tools of the Law and Economics, the traditional theories existing in Chile that considers the administration of justice as a private good, will be questioned. In the following pages, the essential condition of justice as a public good is argued, in order to dismiss the arguments offered by traditional theories that suggest the privatization of justice. The article proposes a new way to understand the jurisdictional function, considering efficiency as reasoning criteria of judicial decisions. Thus, is possible to obtain positive public externalities that justify the state investment in justice.