Norms and the Law

This book contains perspectives of world-renowned scholars from the fields of law, economics, and political science about the relationship between law and norms. The authors take different approaches by using a wide variety of perspectives from law, legal history, neoclassical economics, new institutional economics, game theory, political science, cognitive science, and philosophy. The essays examine the relationship between norms and the law in four different contexts. Part One consists of essays that use the perspectives of cognitive science and behavioral economics to analyze norms that influence the law. In Part Two, the authors use three different types of common property to examine cooperative norms. Part Three contains essays that deal with the constraints imposed by norms on the judiciary. Finally, Part Four examines the influence formal law has on norms.

• World-renowned scholars from law, economics, and political science, including two recipients of the Nobel Prize in Economics • Unique blend of perspectives from areas such as law, legal history, neoclassical economics, political science and game theory • Analysis of the relationship between law and norms in four contexts: behavioral science, common property, the judiciary, and philosophy

Introduction John N. Drobak; Part I. Rationality and Norms: 1. Social norms and other-regarding preferences Lynn A. Stout; 2. Damages, norms, and punishment Cass R. Sunstein; 3. Cognitive science and the study of the ‘rules of the game’ in a world of uncertainty Douglass C. North; Part II. Norms of the Commons: 4. Norms of the household Robert C. Ellickson; 5. Commons Lawrence Lessig; 6. How norms help reduce the tragedy of the commons: a multi-layer framework for analyzing field experiments Juan-Camilo Cárdenas and Elinor Ostrom; Part III. Judicial Norms: 7. Judging the judges: some remarks on the way judges think and the way judges act Lawrence M. Friedman; 8. Judicial independence in a democracy: institutionalizing judicial restraint John Ferejohn and Larry D. Kramer; 9. Black judges and ascriptive group identity Kathryn Abrams; 10. Judicial norms: a judge\'s perspectives Harry T. Edwards; Part IV. The Influence of Law on Norms: 11. Normative evaluation and legal analogues Amartya Sen; References; Index.