Notes on Harel and Teichman

Abstract

This text is a commentary on Harel and Teichman’s call for more “empirical grounding” of the behavioural analysis of law. I attempt to show that the normative character of law poses a serious, yet another and not discussed in the paper, challenge, for the behavioural and experimental studies of law. I briefly discuss the main points of raised by the authors and then I concisely characterize the behavioural approach to law that complements their analysis. Afterwards I discuss, on the basis of two experimental works taken from other branches of law, the obstacles to the empirical and experimental studies of the behavioural impact of law. I conclude with the brief remark on the last section of the paper that concerns the possibility of drawing normative conclusions from the surveys on people’s moral views on punishment