I like the general idea of linking the consequences of some actions to the actors involved to prevent cheating and bad behavior. The examples from Babylon and Rome were probably much more effective in this than cutting the bonus of a banker (ie they paid with their lives).

I had a similar thought when I started reading about fracking (http://www.propublica.org/series/fracking). A simple solution there for the pollution caused by the wastewater is to force the executives and their families from the companies doing fracking to live in the communities they affect and use/drink the water they claim is safe.