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This book introduces the reader to the social and behavioural foundations for a `sense of justice' - the form of equilibrium which individuals and legal systems seek to achieve and maintain in a changing and complex world.
The contributors draw upon new discoveries and insights from the biologically-based behavioural sciences that are critical to a more informed understanding of legal phenomena, particularly those dealing with complex social and political relationships.
List of contents
The Problem of Justice in Contemporary Legal Thought - Roger D Masters
PART ONE: LAW, BIOLOGY, AND THE SENSE OF JUSTICE
Moralistic Aggression, Processing Mechanisms, and the Brain - Michael T McGuire
The Biological Foundations of the Sense of Justice
Emotion and the Costs of Altruism - Robert Frank
The Economic Foundations of the Sense of Justice
Naturalistic Approaches to Justice in Political Philosophy and the Life Sciences - Roger D Masters
PART TWO: LEGAL THEORY, NATURE AND THE SENSE OF JUSTICE
An Ethological Perspective on Law and Biology - Margaret Gruter
The Sense of Justice and the Concept of Cultural Justice - Wolfgang Fikentscher
Legal Anthropology
Traditional Legal Concepts from an Evolutionary Perspective - Peter Strahlendorf
PART THREE: LEGAL PRACTICE, SOCIAL NORMS, AND THE SENSE OF JUSTICE
Intuition, Altruism and Spite - William H Rodgers Jr
Justice as Justification
Empirical Evidence of the Sense of Justice - Karen Cook and Karen Hegtvedt
An Ethological Interpretation of the Sense of Justice on the Basis of German Law - Herbert Helmrich
PART FOUR: NATURE, CULTURE, AND THE SENSE OF JUSTICE
The Chimpanzee¿s Sense of Social Regularity and its Relation to the Human Sense of Justice - Frans B M De Waal
The Child¿s Development of the Sense of Justice - William R Charlesworth
Moral Development, Resources, and Emotions
The Evolution of Cultural Norms - Lionel Tiger
Toward a More Coherent Theory of Justice - Roger D Masters (with comments by Robert Cooter and E Donald Elliott)
Summary
An introduction to the social and behavioural foundations which create a form of equilibrium sought by legal systems, known as the "sense of justice". The text draws upon new discoveries and legal insights from the biologically-based behavioural sciences.
