Social Norms and the Law: Why Peoples Obey the Law

Licht Amir N.
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Licht Amir N.: Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya

Review of Law & Economics, 2008, vol. 4, issue 3, 715-750

Abstract: This paper explores the relations between law and social norms and in particular, the case of legal compliance in groups. Specifically, this paper argues that the rule of law is a social norm interfacing the formal institutions of society with the informal ones. As social institutions, norms should also be analyzed at the societal level – a level of analysis that neo-classical economic accounts have failed to address due to fundamental premises of current economic theory. Theories developed in psychology provide a good working framework for social norm analysis in general and of legal compliance (rule of law) in particular. Extant evidence is consistent with the present argument.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.2202/1555-5879.1232

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