CSLS Speaker Series – “Expressive Law, Social Norms, and Inequality”

Featuring Catherine Albiston, Jackson H. Ralston Professor of Law and Professor of Sociology, Faculty Director of CSLS, Berkeley Law

Abstract: Law and society scholars have long been interested in whether law can change society. Empirical evidence is decidedly mixed, and several studies show that laws meant to reduce inequality have not lived up to their promise. Evaluating how law relates to social change requires theorizing and studying the mechanisms through which law affects society, including the alternative normative systems that interact with the law in action in particular social settings. This talk investigates these questions through a series of three studies about how family and medical leave laws operate on the ground. This research focuses on law’s expressive effect on social norms, and how law interacts with alternative normative systems about work, family, and gender. These studies draw on multiple empirical methods, including qualitative interviews, survey data, and experimental designs to develop and test theory about how law affects social norms and inequality. They find that alternative normative systems undermine legal rights to leave in unanticipated but theoretically coherent ways. They also show how making law salient in workplace interactions can counteract these alternative norms to reduce inequality through law’s expressive effects. 

Reception: 12:15-12:45p.m in the Kadish Library
Program: 12:45 – 2:00 p.m. in the Philip Selznick Seminar Room