Is There a Law Instinct?

The widely-held view is that legal systems develop in response to purposeful efforts to achieve economic, political, or social objectives. The alternative view considered in this Article is that reliance on legal systems to organize social activity is an integral part of human nature, just as language and morality now appear to be directly shaped by innate predispositions. This Article formalizes and presents evidence in support of the claim that humans instinctively turn to legal systems to organize social behavior