America’s insider trading laws are hopelessly out of date. As a result, fraudsters have evaded law enforcement scrutiny, and honest market participants are sometimes confused about the rules of the road.

As a former United States attorney for Manhattan (Mr. Bharara) and a current commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission ( Mr. Jackson ), we have sworn to uphold and enforce the law, to protect the fairness and integrity of our financial markets against those who would undermine them. Our work is guided by a simple idea: If you engage in misconduct that harms investors, you should be held accountable.

Insider trading cases are of special significance. They are a manifestation of America’s basic bargain: that the well-connected should not have unfair advantages over the everyday citizen. When regulators and prosecutors make a commitment to punish insider trading, it sends a message that you don’t need special access to make an honest buck. Fighting insider trading is a refusal to accept a rigged system.

But the truth is, we often struggle to hold bad actors accountable for insider trading. In large part, that’s because our insider trading laws do not clearly define what the standard is.