Download This PaperHomo Juridicus: Questioning Legal Assumptions About Behavior
Amsterdam Law School Research Paper No. 2020-28
General Subserie Research Paper No. 2020-10
32 Pages Posted: 28 Apr 2020 Last revised: 28 May 2020
Date Written: January 24, 2020
Abstract
This inaugural lecture discusses legal assumptions about behavior. It argues that law has a very important function in shaping future conduct. It showcases four empirical insights about this ex-ante function of law: there is inconclusive proof for the deterrent effect of sanctions, most people do not know legal rules, people do not make individual decisions about compliance but respond to others, and people are not always free in how they respond to the law and may lack the opportunity to break it. It shows how there are many empirical insights about how law shapes behavior but that these have not been central in legal thinking and education. It outlines how we can develop a behavioral jurisprudence that makes the law's ex-ante function in shaping behavior more central and that corrects the law's assumptions about human and organisational conduct.
Keywords: jurisprudence, law and behavior, compliance, law enforcement, criminal law, regulation, law and society, criminology, public policy
JEL Classification: K00, k14, k20, K42
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