What is a nonlegal rule?

A nonlegal rule is a type of social norm or expectation that guides behavior in a group or society. Unlike laws, nonlegal rules are not codified or enforced by any formal institution. Instead, they emerge informally through social interaction and are maintained through social approval and disapproval. While nonlegal rules lack formal sanctions, violation can still result in adverse social consequences.

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Types of Nonlegal Rules

There are several different types of nonlegal rules that people commonly follow:

Moral norms – Standards of right and wrong conduct, such as injunctions against lying, cheating, and stealing.
Customs – Traditional practices accepted by a community, like giving gifts on birthdays or not wearing white after Labor Day.
Etiquette – Rules governing socially acceptable behavior, politeness, and manners, such as saying “please” and “thank you.”

Social conventions – Widely-followed but arbitrary social rules, like driving on the right side of the road.
Taboos – Cultural prohibitions against behaviors seen as dangerous, forbidden, or sacred, like incest.
Folkways – Informal cultural practices that structure everyday interactions, such as holding doors open for others.

While these categories overlap to some degree, they provide a basic framework for understanding the different types of nonlegal rules that guide human conduct.

Characteristics of Nonlegal Rules

Nonlegal rules have several notable characteristics that distinguish them from formal laws:

Informality – They emerge gradually through social interaction rather than being explicitly formulated or codified.

Flexibility – They are more malleable and context-dependent than formal laws.
Variability – There is greater cultural and subgroup variation in nonlegal rules than laws.
Enforceability – Reliance is placed on informal social sanctions like criticism, ostracism, and stigma rather than formal punishments.

Internalization – These rules work best when people have internalized them as norms that they want to follow.
Context-dependence – Violating nonlegal rules is not always considered wrong; it depends on the situation.

These features allow nonlegal rules to dynamically adapt to changing environments and cultural shifts. However, their informal nature also makes them harder to definitively articulate and identifies.

Functions of Nonlegal Rules

Nonlegal rules serve several important functions in society:

Coordination – They facilitate organized collective action, as with driving norms.
Socialization – They instruct people in expected social conduct, like table manners.

Social control – They promote conformance by creating norms that discourage deviance.
Dispute resolution – They provide informal mechanisms for handling conflicts, like apologies.
Expressing identity – Following certain nonlegal rules signals membership in a particular culture, subculture, or social group.

Enhancing efficiency – They allow smoother social functioning without the need for formal governance.

By carrying out these functions, nonlegal rules help provide social order and cohesion. They allow people to coordinate behavior, minimize conflict, and make sense of the world around them.

Relationship to Laws

While nonlegal rules and formal laws govern human behavior, they have a complex relationship:

Laws codify – Some nonlegal rules eventually become codified into laws, like bans on slavery.
Laws reinforce – Criminalizing a behavior signals it is condemned, bolstering aligned nonlegal rules.
Nonlegal rules fill gaps – Where laws are absent, nonlegal rules still influence conduct, like norms of “good sportsmanship.”

Nonlegal rules contradict laws – There are times when informal rules conflict with formal laws, such as unwritten codes of silence within police departments.
Nonlegal rules specify laws – Nonlegal rules often emerge to provide more detailed guidance where laws are vague, like norms regarding plagiarism.
Laws trump nonlegal rules – When in direct conflict, codified laws take precedence over informal social norms.

There is often considerable interplay between laws and nonlegal rules, with each exerting influence on the emergence and enforcement of the other. Changes to one can prompt shifts in the other as societies continuously renegotiate behavioral boundaries and expectations.

Examples of Nonlegal Rules

Nonlegal rules touch upon countless aspects of behavior and social life. Some common examples include:

Saying “bless you” when someone sneezes.

Women wearing makeup and men not wearing makeup in many societies.
Not asking others their age.
Bringing wine or flowers when invited to dinner at someone’s home.

Tipping servers 15-20% at restaurants in the United States.
Waiting in line on a first come, first served basis.
Avoiding controversial topics like politics and religion in polite company.

Letting others exit an elevator before entering it.
Standing when a judge enters the courtroom.
Men paying for dates early in relationships.

These examples illustrate the incredible diversity of nonlegal rules that help facilitate social life. Their pervasiveness highlights just how fundamentally human behavior is shaped by informal social norms.

Enforcement of Nonlegal Rules

Since nonlegal rules lack formal codification and sanctions, they are enforced through more subtle social mechanisms:

Normative pressure – The need for social approval and fear of disapproval strongly motivates adherence.

Natural consequences – Violating norms can damage relationships and reputations.
Shaming – Gossip, ridicule, and criticism enforce rules by imposing reputational costs.
Ostracism – Those who violate rules may be socially excluded or ignored.

Stigma – Norm violators are stigmatized as deviants, serving as a warning to others.
Guilt – Internalized norms create guilt when violated, even if nobody else knows.

Because nonlegal rules rely on diffuse social pressures rather than centralized coercion, enforcement is variable and context-dependent. But the consequences can still be deeply meaningful, instilling a strong incentive to follow prevailing norms and customs.

Development and Evolution of Nonlegal Rules

Nonlegal rules emerge gradually over time with little centralized direction. A variety of factors influence this process:

Utility – Rules develop to solve common social problems and meet functional needs.
Mimicry – People imitate behaviors they perceive to be successful or normative.

Socialization – Rules are passed on through parenting, schooling, and other forms of training.
Diffusion – Norms spread via communication channels and social networks.
Codification – When informal rules are written down, it formalizes and standardizes them.

Innovation – New rules occasionally arise from creative acts by influential members of society.
Drift – Gradual changes over time can produce shifts in rules.

These evolutionary processes allow nonlegal rules to adapt in response to cultural and technological changes. For example, emerging norms around cell phone use in public spaces took time to develop and spread.

Major historical events can also prompt rapid transformations in nonlegal rules. Social revolutions, migrations, natural disasters, and globalization are forces that can profoundly rewrite the informal rulebooks governing behavior.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Nonlegal Rules

Nonlegal rules have distinct advantages and disadvantages relative to formal laws:

Advantages

Flexibility – They readily evolve as situations and preferences change.

Informality – They arise without complex legislating or litigating.
Contextual adaptation – They fit varied social contexts better than rigid, uniform laws.
Nuance – They handle complex interpersonal behaviors beyond the scope of formal governance.

Efficient social control – Relying on internalization and social pressure reduces enforcement costs.
Expressive significance – Following nonlegal rules can have value as a moral or status symbol.

Disadvantages

Uncertainty – Their informal nature makes the rules ambiguous, subjective, and difficult to definitively articulate.

Variation – Norms differ significantly across cultures and subcultures.
Conservatism – Reliance on precedent means rules changing slowly.
Inconsistency – Enforcement depends on social dynamics, making it highly variable.

Potential injustice – Informality allows prejudice and mistreatment to persist as norms.
Inefficiency – Some nonlegal rules arise from superstitions or outdated traditions.

The advantages make nonlegal rules well-suited for regulating complex social behaviors. But the disadvantages highlight why codified laws are still essential for enforcing formal rights, preventing discrimination, and ensuring consistent due process.

Criticisms of Nonlegal Rules

Scholars have critiqued nonlegal rules on several grounds:

Oppression – They have enforced exploitation, servitude, and second-class status for women and minorities.
Control – They are mechanisms for social elites to impose their will on less powerful groups.

Conformism – Strict nonlegal rules undermine individual autonomy and self-expression.
Rigidity – They irrationally perpetuate outdated traditions and dysfunctional behaviors.
Hypocrisy – People often violate the very same rules they publicly defend and impose on others.

Inefficiency – Nonlegal rules are not designed, but rather accumulate over time. This makes them pruone to problems.

These criticisms highlight valid concerns about the historical issues arising from nonlegal rules. Rules that seem neutral or harmless on the surface can serve to reinforce systematic inequality and domination. It is important to periodically re-evaluate them with a critical, socially-conscious perspective.

Changing Nonlegal Rules

While nonlegal rules are flexible over the long run, transforming them intentionally poses challenges:

Entrenchment – Rules become taken-for-granted norms that are resistant to deliberate change.
Internalization – When rules are deeply internalized, change requires reshaping individual identities and moral values.
Social control – Those benefitting from rules will defend them by sanctioning dissenters and innovators.

Pluralism – Modern societies contain diverse subcultures following different rules, complicating coordination.
Unpredictability – It is hard to foresee the full consequences of abandoning existing rules or adopting new ones.
Time – Even successful transformations take time as new practices diffuse gradually.

Movements seeking change must overcome these barriers by framing alternative rules as legitimate, recruiting influential defectors, and creating incentives for adopting new norms. Change often begins slowly through local innovations that spread before reaching a tipping point of rapid transformation.

Conclusion

Nonlegal rules represent informal social norms that emerge spontaneously to shape human behavior. They play a vital role in providing social order by helping people coordinate, avoid disputes, and meet expectations. However, nonlegal rules can also introduce problems of inequality, control, and inefficiency if they go unchallenged for too long. Societies must strike an ongoing, evolving balance between the advantages of informality and the need for formal codification when governing human conduct.