Although the influence of the law is vague in various contexts, it is somewhat predictable. Models of legal influence, compliance and non-compliance exist in all areas of practice and social life. The most important sources of knowledge on contextualized legal influence are legal practice, empirical research, and social science theory. Practitioners learn models through experience (practice). For lawyers, the practice of law is the great and final teacher of law in action, just as business practice and policing are for decision-makers in these policy areas. Lawyers, individuals and law firms gain knowledge about models of legal relevance in their specific contexts, the “tradition” that orchestrates the practical use of law. Legal practice is on-the-job training in law and action. Researchers examine models in different social and economic contexts (empirical research). Social science theory is a source of predictions about legal implications that can be verified by empirical research, e.g., sociology (e.g., organizational filtering), psychology (e.g., response to information and incentives), and economics (e.g., efficient resource allocation). (1) The Nature of Action: Social Choices and the Indeterminacy of Legal Influence As ideas, “Law in Action” and “the Rules” (or “the Law in the Books”) contain a puzzle that seems both mutually conditional (don`t we need both?) and yet contradictory (reality versus theory). This essay seeks to better understand by examining four questions: (1) What is right in action? (2) Where does our knowledge of active law come from? (3) What is “law in books”? (4) Has the main source of law in the books within law schools (i.e., teaching and research at law school) moved closer to law in action? As the word “primer” suggests, my goal is to develop a simplified map of a region often traversed by law applicants, students, law professors, lawyers, social scientists and others. The essence of law in action, the characteristic that most accurately distinguishes it from existing law, is that law in action is any decision, action or transaction made or contemplated by individuals and organizations with respect to the law or legal consequences that may be relevant and influence how decisions are made.

In a particular context, the decision-maker is at the forefront and decides which legal acts are relevant – among many other factors. The law does not prescribe “top-down” behaviour. Decision-makers determine the importance of law in decisions, actions and transactions. [Note 1] The vague influence of law is well illustrated by Macaulay`s groundbreaking study [note 2]. Formal contracts between companies are sometimes drafted to determine the terms of barter transactions. However, disputes are rarely resolved by contractually agreed remedies, and disputes are extremely rare. Formal dispute resolution is costly, inefficient, damages the company`s reputation and disrupts good business relationships. Disputes are usually resolved through other means such as informal negotiations, good faith and alternatives in the marketplace (for example, finding another buyer). The law has less influence because non-legal forces have more influence (called in other situations alternative sources of social control). Litigation is more likely to occur when a single-purpose relationship ends and one party is left with non-recoverable costs (e.g., wrongful termination of deductibles). Legal advice is interesting because it is based on precedents, laws and regulations, and relies on law as an apparent determining influence. But the meaning of law is often ambiguous and open to interpretative judgments, leaving room for reflection on politics, politics, ideology and value judgments based on the different facts of particular cases.

The partial overlaps and tensions between existing law, as taught and studied in law schools, law in action, as practiced in practice, and law in action, as studied in empirical research, have existed since the beginnings of formal legal education. Like Yin and Yang, Law in Action and Law in the Books are defined by each other and coexist in creative tension. Research at the Faculty of Law. Law in action research (empirical and theoretical) has developed considerably as an alternative to educational research, as the so-called “gap study” exemplifies. Laws are presented in educational research as laws with a legal purpose or intention and policy objectives. [Note 3] One could say, for example, that this sole purpose of the law is a fair and equitable division of property between divorced spouses. Empirical research almost always finds a gap between legal intent and effect – it reveals, for example, that parties to divorce proceedings can use custody as bargaining chips in property disputes, and that differences in spouses` wealth and power have a big impact on outcomes (also commonly known among practitioners in the field).