Hofstra Law Review 

About: Hofstra Law Review is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Supreme court & Legal ethics. It has an ISSN identifier of 0091-4029. Over the lifetime, 857 publications have been published receiving 4385 citations.

Building a Law-Abiding Society: Taking Public Views About Morality and the Legitimacy of Legal Authorities into Account When Formulating Substantive Law

Abstract: This Article argues that psychologists can make an important and fundamental contribution to the law by articulating the possibility of a law-abiding society, and by showing how such a society can be created and maintained. Such a contribution involves the application of psychological models of social values to our conceptions of how to effectively maintain the rule of law. The effective rule of law requires that citizens comply with the regulatory rules enshrined in the law and enforced by legal authorities. Most recent discussions of such compliance rest upon the idea that lawbreaking behavior is deterred by the risk of being caught and punished for wrongdoing. A law-abiding society is one in which people are motivated not by such fears, but rather by a desire to act in socially appropriate and ethical ways. Such a society is self-regulatory, since citizens within it take onto themselves the responsibility to follow the law. In a society in which people act on their social values, citizens are motivated to voluntarily defer to law and to legal authorities because they think: (1) that the behaviors prohibited by law are also immoral (morality) and/or (2) that legal authorities are entitled to be obeyed (the legitimacy of legal authorities). In this analysis, the similarities and differences associated with the exercise of legal authority are examined based on: (1) deterrence; (2)