The Expressive Powers of Law

McAdams, Richard H.

doi:10.4159/harvard.9780674735965

Cited by 123 publications

(98 citation statements)

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“…Hence, if law has a purely expressive quality, the NL provides a good opportunity to test expressive effects and our experimental setting facilitates addressing the causality concerns noted by Scott. What we find seems to support Scott's concerns: the NL had little impact on the majority of the population that supported the law (see also Feldman & Nadler ; McAdams .) In particular, the law had virtually no impact on its supporters in the very context where expressive effects should have been most straightforward: on decisions regarding the allocation of public resources to the Arab group (see Figure ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 60%

The Provocative Effect of Law: Majority Nationalism and Minority Discrimination

Barak‐Corren¹,

Feldman²,

Gidron³

2018

J Empirical Legal Studies

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Western societies have experienced ethnic and religious diversification in recent decades. These demographic changes have been met by efforts to defend the local dominant culture using majority nationalism laws, intended to protect the cultural heritage of the majority. We empirically examine majority nationalism laws’ expressive effects on patterns of minority discrimination using the Israeli draft Nation Law (NL) as a case study. Drawing on two experimental surveys of a representative sample of the majority population of Israel (N = 602), our results lend weak support to the hypothesis that majority nationalism laws increase bias against minorities, and modest support to the hypothesis that such laws generate unintended spillover effects across different minority groups and from the public to the private sphere. Our main finding is that majority nationalism laws provoke a backlash reaction from those who oppose them. We define this as the provocative effect of law and discuss its relation to the expressive law theory. The results suggest that the effects of majority nationalism laws may vary systematically across ideological groups and spheres of discrimination.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 60%

The Provocative Effect of Law: Majority Nationalism and Minority Discrimination

Barak‐Corren¹,

Feldman²,

Gidron³

2018

J Empirical Legal Studies

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“…19 McAdams (2015) argued that legal compliance also results from the expressive power of law to coordinate our behaviour and inform our beliefs.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Much of the ‘economics of property rights’ devalues property and legal rights

Hodgson

2015

Journal of Institutional Economics

136

114

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Abstract. Legal theorists and other commentators have long established a distinction between property and possession. According to this usage adopted here, possession refers to control of a resource, but property involves legally sanctioned rights. Strikingly, prominent foundational accounts of the 'economics of property rights' concentrate on possession, downplaying the issue of legitimate legal rights

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“…To evaluate these protections, we must consider not only their impacts on discriminatory behavior but also their behavioral and attitudinal impacts on patients and communities. This is because supportive or stigmatizing rules can exert an expressive effect: laws communicate information about prevailing social norms, they give some norms greater authority by virtue of the state's support, and they can shape community values . Through these expressive impacts, nondiscrimination laws may affect not only discriminatory behavior in health activities but also the attitudes, beliefs, and decisions of people who are legally protected.…”

Section: Policy and Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Raising the Stakes for Nondiscrimination Protections in the ACA

Underhill¹

2018

Hastings Center Report

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In the struggle over the durability of the Affordable Care Act, defenders of the ACA stand guard at many fronts. A major contribution of the ACA to nondiscrimination law, however, appears increasingly vulnerable. The ACA established significant new nondiscrimination protections for patients under section 1557 and its implementing regulations. Several of these regulations—including protections on the basis of gender identity and pregnancy termination—are now under reconsideration at the Department of Health and Human Services, after a nationwide injunction lasting almost a year. Nondiscrimination laws matter, of course, because they promote equal access to health care. But focusing on discriminatory behavior alone is a narrow view of the purpose and potential of nondiscrimination rules—and underestimates the stakes of softening section 1557. To evaluate these protections, we must consider not only their impacts on discriminatory behavior but also their behavioral and attitudinal impacts on patients and communities. This is because supportive or stigmatizing rules can exert an expressive effect: laws communicate information about prevailing social norms, they give some norms greater authority by virtue of the state's support, and they can shape community values. Through these expressive impacts, nondiscrimination laws may affect not only discriminatory behavior in health activities but also the attitudes, beliefs, and decisions of people who are legally protected.

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The Expressive Powers of Law

Cited by 123 publications

References 0 publications

The Provocative Effect of Law: Majority Nationalism and Minority Discrimination

The Provocative Effect of Law: Majority Nationalism and Minority Discrimination

Much of the ‘economics of property rights’ devalues property and legal rights

Raising the Stakes for Nondiscrimination Protections in the ACA

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