Josselin, Jean-Michel; Marciano, Alain --- "General Norms and Customs" [2005] ELECD 152; in Backhaus, G. Jürgen (ed), "The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics, Second Edition" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005)

Book Title: The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics, Second Edition

Editor(s): Backhaus, G. Jürgen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845420321

Section: Chapter 28

Section Title: General Norms and Customs

Author(s): Josselin, Jean-Michel; Marciano, Alain

Number of pages: 9

Extract:

28 General norms and customs
Jean-Michel Josselin and Alain Marciano


Introduction
Economic interactions between individuals take place within institutions which
can be defined either as informal constraints (sanctions, customs, taboos,
traditions and codes of conduct) or as formal rules (constitutions, laws,
property rights) (North, 1991). Social norms or general norms can be defined
as the broader set of rules including informal constraints and formal rules.
Therefore, the set of general norms can be delineated by the nature of agree-
ments among individuals. A basic distinction is thus possible between
conventions, which are tacit rules, and institutions, which result solely from
an explicit and formal agreement among individuals. Customs belong to the
first subset of general social norms, defined as informal and tacitly agreed
rules. Using economic tools, we shall define customs and show how their
properties are those of conventional norms. Then, we shall study the bound-
aries within which they are supposed to be obeyed. Finally, we shall examine
the conditions under which customs ground legal rules and compare them to
other sources of the law.

Customs as conventional rules
The formation process of customary law has frequently been analysed from
the positive perspective of the description of some particular types of soci-
eties or practices. International trade is frequently quoted as a significant
example (Benson, 1998a, 1998b). Primitive (Landa, 1983; Benson, 1991)
or medieval (Greif, 1989; Milgrom et al., 1990, Greif et al., 1994) societies
also provide evidence that help us to understand how customary rules
emerge. ...