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Social Norms and Legal Design

Author

Listed:
  • Bruno Deffains
  • Claude Fluet

Abstract

We consider legal obligations against a background of social norms, for example, societal norms, professional codes of conduct, or business standards. Violations of the law trigger reputational sanctions insofar as they signal nonadherence to underlying norms, raising the issue of the design of offenses. We show that the law generally ought to follow social norms or be stricter than them. When society is only concerned with the trade-off between deterrence and enforcement costs, legal standards defining offenses should align with underlying norms so long as the latter are not too deficient. When providing productive information to third parties is also a concern, legal standards should either align with underlying norms with fines that trade off deterrence against the provision of information; or legal standards should be more demanding and enforced with purely symbolic sanctions, for example, public reprimands. Our analysis has implications for general law enforcement and regulatory policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruno Deffains & Claude Fluet, 2020. "Social Norms and Legal Design," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 36(1), pages 139-169.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jleorg:v:36:y:2020:i:1:p:139-169.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jleo/ewz016
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Roberto Galbiati & Emeric Henry & Nicolas Jacquemet, 2024. "Learning to cooperate in the shadow of the law," Journal of the Economic Science Association, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 10(2), pages 165-198, December.
    2. Govindan, Pavitra, 2022. "How do informal norms affect rule compliance: Experimental evidence," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    3. Grolleau, Gilles & Mungan, Murat C. & Mzoughi, Naoufel, 2022. "Seemingly irrelevant information? The impact of legal team size on third party perceptions," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    4. Claude Fluet & Tim Friehe, 2024. "Optimal law enforcement when individuals are either moral or norm followers," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 26(1), February.
    5. repec:pra:mprapa:113760 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Christoph Rössler & Tim Friehe, 2020. "Liability, morality, and image concerns in product accidents with third parties," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 295-312, October.
    7. Fluet, Claude & Mungan, Murat C., 2022. "Laws and norms with (un)observable actions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
    • K4 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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