Law's Evolution and Human Understanding

Why do people consult the law? Why do we consult lawyers? Law''s Evolution and Human Understanding articulates a fresh conception of law that builds on Oliver Wendell Holmes'' celebrated insights concerning law''s predictive potential. The book considers important implications of this new understanding for how we individually make moral choices, how we read law, and some of the many other ways that law affects our lives.

When should we follow the law? How can we know what law''s words mean? What ^iis^r law? ^b^iLaw''s Evolution and Human Understanding^r^r presents fresh and surprising answers to these questions. In an account alive with the stories of our shared human history, Laurence Claus explains why we should discard the old idea that legal rules tell us what to do, and instead see law as a system of sayings that evolves among humans to help us better ^iunderstand each other^r.When driving on public roads, when buying and selling, and in countless other aspects of our work and play, we depend on law to let us know what other people are likely to do and to expect of us. Through fast-paced pages of anecdote and argument, ^b^iLaw''s Evolution and Human Understanding^r^r explains the revolutionary consequences of seeing law as truly what Oliver Wendell Holmes called it: systematized prediction. The book reveals how this vision of law can transform our thinking about the way we make moral decisions, about the way we read law, and about many other ways that law affects our lives.