Unjust laws and illegal norms

Due to a variety of circumstances, lawmakers occasionally create laws whose aims are perceived as outright unjust by the majority of the people. In other situations, the law may utilize improper means for the pursuit of a just goal. In all such cases, lawmaking processes generate rules that do not reflect the values of the underlying population. In these cases individuals may face legal commands or prohibitions that conflict with their sense of justice or fairness. Individuals can oppose unjust laws through protest. Social opposition to unjust laws may trigger social norms that can have countervailing effects on legal intervention. The dynamic effects of these phenomena are the object of this paper.

► We study the feedback mechanism between law and social norms using a dynamic setup. ► When laws depart from current social values we may observe backlash effects. ► A law sanctioning socially admissible behavior may increase that behavior. ► Laws trying to bend unwanted social norms may reinforce them. ► Differently from expressive laws, laws that backlash may create social divide.