The Expressive Powers of Law: Theories and Limits

by Richard H. McAdams

When asked why people obey the law, legal scholars usually give two answers. Law deters illicit activities by specifying sanctions, and it possesses legitimate authority in the eyes of society. Richard McAdams shifts the prism on this familiar question to offer another compelling explanation of how the law creates through its expressive power to coordinate our behavior and inform our beliefs. People seek order, and they sometimes obtain a mutually shared benefit when each expects the other to behave in accordance with law. Traffic regulations, for example, coordinate behavior by expressing an orderly means of driving. A traffic sign that tells one driver to yield to another creates expectations in the minds of both drivers and so allows each to avoid collision. McAdams generalizes from traffic to constitutional and international law and many other domains. In addition to its coordinating function, law expresses information. Legislation reveals something important about the risks of the behavior being regulated, and social attitudes toward it. Anti-smoking laws, for example, signal both the lawmakers’ recognition of the health risks associated with smoking and the public’s general disapproval. This information causes individuals to update their beliefs and alter their behavior. McAdams shows how an expressive theory explains the law’s sometimes puzzling efficacy, as when tribunals are able to resolve disputes even though they lack coercive power or legitimacy. The Expressive Powers of Law contributes to our understanding of the mechanisms by which law―simply by what it says rather than what it sanctions―generates compliance.

Genres: Law

336 pages, Hardcover

First published February 9, 2015

About the author

Richard H. McAdams is Bernard D. Meltzer Professor of Law and Aaron Director Research Scholar at the University of Chicago Law School.

Professor McAdams received his BA in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his JD from the University of Virginia. After graduation, he clerked for Chief Judge Harrison L. Winter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and spent three years as an associate with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Philadelphia.

Professor McAdams previously taught on the faculties at the University of Illinois, Boston University, and IIT Chicago-Kent. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and the Yale Law School and a Visiting Fellow at Australian National University. After visiting at the Chicago Law School in 2005, Professor McAdams joined the Chicago faculty in 2007.

Professor McAdams teaches primarily in the area of criminal law and procedure. His scholarship focuses on criminal law and procedure, social norms, inequality, and the expressive function of law. He has served on the Editorial Board of the Annual Review of Law and Social Science and the Board of Directors of the American Law and Economics Association. Currently, he is finishing a forthcoming book, The Expressive Powers of Law.

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating new book that looks at why people obey the law. Economists have often credited deterrence (saying that legal sanctions influence behavior) and sociologists often point to legitimacy (the idea that people obey the law because they see it as a legitimate authority). But McAdams, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School who has written about this topic for more than a decade, says that's not the whole story. Law works expressively by allowing people to coordinate and by signaling new information and beliefs.

For instance: People tend to comply with traffic signs not because they fear sanctions, but because they want to coordinate with other drivers -- they don't want to slam head-on into another car. Laws can also signal the changing tide of public opinion. A new smoking ban might work because it reveals both a rising disapproval of cigarette smoking, and well as a growing belief among lawmakers that smoking is harmful.

[UChicagoLaw]

My colleague’s masterful exploration of the law’s capacity to establish order and influence behavior without coercive force. It investigates the law’s ability to coordinate and convey information with examples ranging from automobile traffic to anti-smoking laws and even to the Constitution. Insightful and creative, the book deserves wide readership among law students especially. —Thomas J. Miles

[Brandon Shultz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good analysis about the expressive powers of law. I was really impressed with the continuous use of some easy to understand everyday examples that were able to succinctly