Sociology of Law: A Science of Norms and Strategic Normative Thinking

Flashcards covering the Sociology of Law as a norm science, the genomic parallel of norms, Strategic Normative Thinking (SNT), and the impact of the digital era including algo norms and AI regulation.

Sociology of Law (SoL)

A field that, according to Håkan Hydén, ought to broaden its scope to a science of norms, treating them as both empirical phenomena and analytical tools.

Science of Norms

An interdisciplinary approach where norms serve as the common denominator and study object for the Sociology of Law, similar to how the legal system serves lawyers.

Strategic Normative Thinking (SNT)

A functional approach to legal regulation that focuses on the motives of involved parties to achieve consensus and avoid expensive litigation.

Three bases of norms

The cross-links of a norm's double helix consisting of wills and values ($W$), knowledge and cognition ($K$), and systems and possibilities ($SP$).

Extra-judicial norms

A term usually reserved in legal sciences for situations where norms compete with legal rules to decide a particular case.

Technical norms

Norms where the sanction is a natural, inherent part of the norm itself; violating them results in spontaneous penalties (e.g., a bridge failing if mechanics are ignored).

Moral norms

As distinguished by Émile Durkheim, norms where the sanction is an artificial, synthetic addition created externally rather than an automatic consequence of the action.

Productivity Paradox

A concept coined by Robert Solow in the mid-$1980$s noting that growth slowed down as advanced economies adopted digital technology because of the time needed to develop new skills.

Game Rules Paradox

The lag in developing new guidelines for society despite the emergence of a new societal "game" or technology, often due to mental inertia or the resistance of old powerbrokers.

Self-regulation

Systemic measures taken by a company or industry to investigate, prevent, or solve problems regarding customers, which can include recommendations, co-regulation, or self-imposed measures.

Permissive norms

Nils Kristian Sundby's term for norms that neither command nor prohibit but only permit, such as contractual instruments.

Code is Law

Lawrence Lessig's concept stating that software and hardware coding constitutes a set of constraints on behavior in cyberspace, similar to physical architecture in real space.

Algo norms

Norms related to the societal consequences and indirect effects that follow from the use of algorithms.

First order of normativity

In the context of technology, this refers to the precise technical instructions contained within an algorithm.

Second order of normativity

The diversified and multi-normative societal implications and consequences that arise when technology/algorithms are applied in reality.

Filter bubble

A phenomenon where website algorithms guess user preferences and isolate them from information that disagrees with their viewpoints, creating cultural or ideological bubbles.

Verstehen method

Max Weber's approach of methodological individualism used to understand societal phenomena by studying how individuals experience the world.

Intervening legislation

Type of regulation introduced in the late $1970$s and $1980$s (e.g., environmental protection) which acts as a compromise between system imperatives and private/public law.

Disjoint norms

James Coleman's term for norms that arise when interests that benefit from legislation and those that do not affect the same category of actors.

Tokku

The Japanese government's "living lab" or Special Zone for Robotics Empirical Testing and Development initiated in $2003$.

Common law

A legal system based on judicial precedents that confronts new societal phenomena at an earlier stage than statutory-based legal systems.

Red Flag Laws

$19$th-century UK laws for steam-powered vehicles that required a man with a red flag to walk in front of a train to prevent accidents, used as a parallel to reactive regulation.