ARTICLE: Svensson on Norms in Law and Society

Måns Svensson's '

Norms in Law and Society: Towards a Definition of the Socio-Legal Concept of Norms', to be included in M Baier (ed), Social and Legal Norms. (2013), is not on SSRN: 

In this paper, I have argued that the norm concept is central to Sociology of Law and could be held to be equally important as, say, the concept of attitude to Social Psychology. It will probably never be possible to fully bridge the classic gulf between the two dominating academic perspectives on Law – namely, Sociology and Legal Science. However, the norm concept, defined via the essential attributes, tells us that all norms (legal and other social norms) have three properties in common: they are imperatives (‘ought’), yet social facts (‘is’), and, in the end, always subjective beliefs.