How we live and act together is not a matter of law alone: informal social norms bring order where law is absent, in its shadow, and at its deepest foundations. Smugglers, merchants, neighbors, presidents, and senators all follow rules no legislature enacted and no court enforces. How do communities along the Anglo-Scottish border contain violence through norms of retribution? Why do diamond traders take their disputes to their own private arbitration boards rather than to a judge? Do informally shared narratives and myths shape constitutional meaning? How do merchants maintain shared norms as they trade between disparate religious and linguistic communities? How do ranchers settle disputes over stray cattle without turning to the law? This writing seminar takes up these questions through a series of case studies, read alongside works in social and legal theory asking what social norms are, why they matter, and how they relate to law. By studying communities that keep order without courts, officials, or statutes, students will gain a sharper sense of what law offers, what it displaces, and how legal doctrine depends on informal norms for its meaning and force. The seminar will interest students drawn to legal theory as well as those who want to bring its insights to bear on fields such as constitutional, commercial, and international law. Students will be evaluated based on class participation, in-class presentations, and a final research paper fulfilling the Law School writing requirement.
Diamond, Alma