Attitude Theories of the Law

46 Pages Posted: 16 Jul 2021 Last revised: 7 Oct 2021

See all articles by Ori Katz

Ori Katz

Bar-Ilan University - Faculty of Law

Date Written: July 14, 2021

Abstract

In any legal field, numerous normative dilemmas and conflicts arise as to what the legal rules should be. Attitudes toward these conflicts shape legal policy and decision-making. Thus, studying legal attitudes is essential for predicting legal actors’ decisions and understanding the underlying reasons for existing legal doctrines and judgments. To date, many studies have focused on the links between political and cultural attitudes and judicial decision-making. However, only few scholars have attempted to provide a complete descriptive account for the basic conflicts that divide people over distinctively legal issues.

The main objective of this article is to introduce a method for studying the richness of people’s legal attitudes. Building on previous studies of attitudes and the law, and on methods developed in other spheres for constructing, testing, and applying attitude theories, this article advocates the development of attitude theories of the law, that would map the key-conflicts in any legal field. Specifically, it provides a description of what constitutes a legal attitude theory and how such theories could be utilized; sets the criteria for evaluating such theories; and proposes an empirical methodology for testing these theories and for assessing the legal attitudes of individuals.

Keywords: attitudes, decision making, thoery of law

JEL Classification: K10

Suggested Citation

Katz, Ori, Attitude Theories of the Law (July 14, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3886554 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3886554

Ori Katz (Contact Author)

Bar-Ilan University - Faculty of Law ( email )

Faculty of Law
Ramat Gan, 52900
Israel

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
163
Abstract Views
1,030
Rank
353,929
PlumX Metrics